JUNE 7, 2020 – If relaxed curfews now allow us to catch our collective breath, we’re not out of the woods yet. We might well be facing more serious danger ahead—too little reform too late; another case of overt police brutality; some other flashpoint, starting with the prosecution of the four Minneapolis cops.
All four are now racial lightning rods. The cop with the knee represents the worst of America: systemic, institutionalized, officially sanctioned racism. Then you have the other three cops, who, for whatever reason—because they didn’t try hard enough; because they were intimidated; because they were part of the system—failed to prevent murder in front of their faces by a fellow cop. To a troubling extent, those three symbolize the rest of society.
Wisely, the powers at play saw fit to transfer prosecution of the cases from County Attorney Mike Freeman to Attorney General Keith Ellison. Freeman lost long ago the confidence of local black community activists with regard to police prosecutions. Ellison is an astute politician and a very bright light bulb. He’s backed up by fellow Democrat and presidential timber, Governor Tim Walz.
But here’s the rub: prosecuting a policeman to conviction is not easy. Don’t take it from me. Take it from long-time judges and prosecutors, not to mention criminal defense lawyers. For good reason criminal prosecutions generally are not supposed to be “slam-dunks”—which doesn’t mean they aren’t if you’re black, have no resources to hire a private attorney, and are left to the efforts of a seriously over-worked, under-paid public defender. At the core of our freedoms is the right not to be deprived of personal liberty without substantive and procedural “due process.” And the catch is that procedural “due process” must be observed in the most egregious cases in order to ensure that it is observed in all cases, including yours and mine. This includes finding an impartial jury in a sensational case.
Now try to explain “due process” to the angry mob who think—rightfully so from a substantive standpoint—that Cop #1 should be dumped in the slammer for life. If that guy isn’t charged to the max, convicted, and given the most severe sentence possible, there will be hell to pay the angry mob. That means politically, no plea. A plea entails “bargain,” either as to the severity of the charge or severity of the sentence. What that means, in turn, is that the case must go to trial. And trial risks a hung jury or outright acquittal because—trust me, theres nio such thing as an “open and shut” case, except the one that isn’t tried. If the guy “gets off” in any regard, the mob will go nuts.
Prosecution of the other three cops is even dicier, summed up by the locally famous criminal defense attorney, Earl Gray, when he said, “This [charge] is bullshit.”
If this all goes down before Election Day, consult your imaginations—and stock up on essentials. Meanwhile, breathe while you can.
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© 2020 by Eric Nilsson
