DColeKC wrote: ↑Wed Sep 23, 2020 8:47 pm
phuqueue wrote: ↑Wed Sep 23, 2020 6:56 pm
It is never the "correct call" for a grand jury to decide in secret proceedings that a court doesn't even need to look at cops killing an innocent person for no reason. Whether or not it was "murder" is a question of state law, but the determination that it was or wasn't should at least be made in a public forum. Crazy how prosecutors brag that they could get an indictment for a ham sandwich, but somehow they can't manage to do it for cops busting into the wrong home and gunning down the person who lives there. Crazier still that firing into the apartments of white neighbors
did warrant charges, even though firing into a black woman's body didn't.
A group of citizens heard the information presented and made the call. That’s far better than it being left up to an elected official who is under political pressure.
This is exactly what I am talking about, though. You actually have no idea what information was presented or what charges, if any, were even sought, because grand jury proceedings are conducted in secret. You simply believe that the system works, and therefore it worked here, and hey, if that means a young black woman was killed and there will be no consequences for anyone involved, then I guess them's the breaks. If this determination were made in open court, we would at least know whether justice was really served, and if not, then what went wrong. But this is exactly why prosecutors prefer to kill these things at the grand jury stage instead.
Was it "murder," as defined in Kentucky state law? I don't know, I have never researched the relevant statutes, but it should certainly be something. If it really isn't, if there is no law remotely close enough to any of the conduct here to even warrant a charge, then that gets to exactly the point that mean just made a few posts back.
It's also worth pointing out that the warrant itself
was illegal, not that it matters. It seems like that should nullify any "legal justification" that might otherwise exist and should expose the judge who signed the warrant to liability as well, but of course, it won't, because, contrary to your earlier post, laws absolutely can "be bent," and they routinely are, when it serves the interests of the right people.
Them shooting into her apartment was legally justified. Blindly shooting into her apartment without eyes on the target and some of those rounds entering a neighboring inhabited home in which you didn’t have a warrant or a threat is reckless. So the charges against the one officer is the right call.
I suppose that this position is based on your years of legal training and deep familiarity with applicable state laws in Kentucky and
not just a regurgitation of whatever you heard on TV that most aligned with your preexisting viewpoint.