There’s an old saying apparently that a prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich if he wants to. From what I understand, during a grand jury hearing all that should happen is the prosecutor should bring forth evidence on why there should be an indictment. In the grand jury hearing to decide if Officer Darren Wilson should have to stand trial for the killing of Mike Brown, the prosecutor actually presented to the grand jury an affirmative defense, meaning he made the case for the defense as well as the prosecution. This, to me, is evidence of a clear conflict of interest. He overstepped his bounds, and the only clear explanation for this is that he had a personal interest in having the grand jury decide against an indictment. This is truly a miscarriage of justice.
The solution, as I see it, is a system of both state and federal overseers of the nation’s police forces. We need an independent entity (or entities) to investigate and bring police to justice when they have potentially committed acts of brutality or other kinds of misconduct. It is absurd that we leave these decisions to local prosecutors, who work hand-in-hand with the police on a daily basis, effectively giving the police a far greater chance to commit crimes with impunity. This has to stop.
I do not know if Darren Wilson should be found guilty of the murder of Mike Brown, but if he’s truly innocent, he should have no problem establishing reasonable doubt in a court of law. We can’t, as a society, continue to allow the police of this nation to terrorize and brutalize people with virtually no chance of reprisal. The time has come to stop this madness.