There’s a lot to complain about in the way the justice system has handled the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, but Gabrielle Union’s chief concern is the lack of compassion in the response to it all.
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Source: www.huffingtonpost.com
A grand jury (since 1166) is made up of 12 to 23 people. It is used by public prosecutors, sometimes judges, to look into possible wrongdoing, generally a serious crime like murder, rape or fraud.
They do not determine guilt, but whether there should be a trial.
Grand juries can issue an indictment. It lists which people are to be brought to trial charged with what crimes.
Judges can also determine whether there should be a trial by holding apreliminary hearing with the lawyers from both sides.
Public prosecutors (county prosecutors, district attorneys, state attorneys, etc) can also bring charges on their own if there is enough evidence – even when the grand jury returns no indictment.
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Police brutality: Public prosecutors are in bed with the police: they work with them and depend on them. That creates a conflict of interest when the police commit a crime. Throwing it to a grand jury gives an appearance of fairness, but because grand juries rarely disagree with prosecutors, it becomes a way to avoid bringing charges. That is how the police officers who killed Michael Brown, Eric Garner and John Crawford avoided arrest, trial and prison.
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Source: abagond.wordpress.com
ICYMI: 20 States Still Haven’t Outlawed Racial Profiling. Has yours? – http://t.co/9ZysPBn0Uk
— UsaSlumdog (@UsaSlumdog) December 6, 2014
LAPD Shoots and Kills Man at Site of Protests Against Police Murder, Less than 24 Hours Later
Source: thefreethoughtproject.com
For six and a half minutes after NYPD rookie Peter Liang, shot a completely innocent man in the chest, he was texting his union representative, and NOT calling for help.
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/innocent-man-shot-lay-dying-cop-texting-union-rep-6-minutes/#0SttGiJ8V2BchGDx.99
Source: thefreethoughtproject.com
Cops who are supposed to serve and protect are killing us.
And then, they don’t even try to save our life when they mess up.
#BLACKLIVESMATTER
#ICANTBREATHE
#SHUTitDOWN
The Christian Century initiates a conversation for pastors of predominately “white” congregations to talk about racial violence in general and Ferguson specifically in an article titled “How pastors talk about Ferguson.” C. Browning Helsel offers “A Word to the Whites: Preaching about Racism in White Congregations,” challenging those who identify as socially colored white to consider their racial identity development and to create a “nonracist White racial white identity.” The website http://www.preaching.com offers a sermon illustration that encourages persons to become “gracists,” outlining the points of David Anderson’s book Gracism: The Art of Inclusion.
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Source: racelessgospel.com
Wait… what’s hard about the words? Does she mean painful?
Are we talking about White pain? Or pain from talking to White people and calling them out on their racism? Is one pain that White is synonymous with being ignorant about racism even though it’s mostly Whites who are causing the oppression?
Or is the pain that White people are ashamed that they are not able to control their own White community from stopping their racist behaviors?
The Justice Department should standardize mental health screening for cops and subject officers to mandatory, regular bias tests.
— W. E. Bae Du Bois (@alwaystheself) December 5, 2014
A poem I wrote about Eric Garner, written solely with rearranged letters from the entirety of his last words. pic.twitter.com/LLhHVCPPlv
— teenage poet (@voice) December 4, 2014