A Tale of Two Grand Juries

I can’t help but draw a parallel between Michael Brown’s death at the hands of a law officer in Ferguson, MO and the death of Charles Eimers at the hands of law enforcement in Key West, FL. Michael and Charles belonged to two different demographics, yet both are demonized and profiled by law enforcement. Michael’s profile was that of young black male “thug” and Charles’ profile was that of “homeless”. As evidenced by video from around the entire country I see a common and not-so-subtle shift in perception of these two groups and their treatment by civilian police.

Both, young black men and the chronically poor are considered criminally suspect and fair game for harassment, civil rights violations and often times death by those sworn to uphold the law. When we see officers of the law committing murder and getting away with it we lose faith in the very people entrusted with our public safety and security. Trust is the bedrock foundation of any relationship of value, be it friendship, marriage or trust in governance and the law.

Another similarity in these two cases is the findings of the Grand Juries. It is a well known saying that, “a grand jury can indict a ham sandwich”, but in the cases of Brown and Eimers both grand jury/prosecutorial performances exonerated police involvement in the deaths. The Huffington Post reports, “In a normal grand jury proceeding, the prosecutor presents evidence for a few days and then asks the grand jurors to return an indictment, which they nearly always do. Of 162,000 federal cases in 2010, grand juries failed to indict in only 11 of them, according the Bureau of Justice Statistics.”

So, statistically, it is rare for grand juries to not indict. In the case of Darren Wilson, the prosecutor, Robert McCulloch turned the process “on its head” by introducing gobs of exculpatory material and allowing Darren Wilson to testify for four hours in his own defense, thereby completely tainting the proceedings and turning what should have been a simple process to decide if the case merited jury trial or not, into the trial itself.

In the case of the Charles Eimers Grand Jury investigation, information, spoon fed to the jurors, was controlled exclusively by the prosecution and produced the desired result of no indictment. The revelatory new video that surfaced almost a year later of the take down and subsequent death of Charles Eimers has sparked talk of a new Grand Jury investigation. To watch Chief of the Key West Police Department, Donnie Lee squirm while being deposed by the Eimers family attorney was painful to watch, indeed. Falsehood after lie after deception was exposed during the short five minute video and Chief Lee was hard pressed to defend his own officers.

Again, trust is a priceless commodity that is being destroyed by those charged with bringing criminals to justice. Without trust, our system becomes a charade, a parody of itself and we are left with nothing.

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More from other sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marjorie-cohn/prosecutor-manipulates-grand-jury-to-shield-officer_b_6240578.html

https://keywestthenewspaper.com//article/grand-jury-clears-all-officers-in-the-death-of-charles-eimers-vogel-brings-in-expert-police-officer-defense-witness/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq5K7XBAj-0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-6S2QbmEZk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwytoxMuk4U