Thoughts about the police killings in US

Critics say heavy-handed, racially biased tactics to blame for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

Within a week of each other a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri refused to return an indictment against a police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown and in New York City, a grand jury declined to indict a NYPD policeman over the choking and consequent death in the arrest of Eric Garner.

While both cases involve a police killing and evoked widespread protests, the cases are quite distinct from one another. In Ferguson the case involved a felony and there was substantial evidence of resisting arrest and even aggressive behavior on the part of Michael Brown. In contrast, in Eric Garner's case, the matter was only a misdemeanour and Garner was not resisting arrest. There was no indictment by the grand jury, notwithstanding a bystander's video that clearly showed the accused was not resisting arrest as policeman Daniel Pantaleo placed Garner in what seemed to be an illegal chokehold which was in breach of police arrest procedures. The video showed a group of four officers, uniformed and plainclothes, wrestling an obviously distressed Garner to the pavement. He died soon after. Another contrast is that the NYPD police force has a high percentage of minorities while the much smaller community of Ferguson had very few.

While these cases are distinct, what they have in common, in my view, is that they highlight multiple problems that need to be addressed.

The first is a breakdown in the criminal justice system. While grand juries are required under the U.S. Constitution, this does not apply to the states and many states do not use them. They are slow and open to corruption or undue influence. The process is very much in the hands of, and able to be manipulated by, the prosecutor. In many cases, when a prosecutor is an elected official or aligned with a particular party, the grand jury can become a political tool used to embarrass the opposing party.

Prosecutors in the United States also work closely with the police on a daily basis and there is accordingly a propensity for prosecutors to protect the police against charges of abuse. Another possibility in the present cases is that the prosecutors have been inept at presenting a clear and compelling case for indictment and subsequent public trial of the matter before a normal jury. In any event, given the sensitivity on these issues, a public trial would have served a valuable purpose in allowing issues to be aired and discussed more fully.

A related issue is a well-known culture within the police force of looking after one another. Accordingly, prosecutors are likely to go "softly" on cases such as this and police are highly reluctant to testify against one another. Instead, they close ranks and protect the "men in blue."