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Old 26th September 2017, 06:19 AM   #126
Bikewer
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: St. Louis, Mo.
Posts: 13,231
Originally Posted by MikeG View Post
Respectfully (and thanks for the informative post), can you ever think of any circumstances in which police investigating police will A/ be just, and B/ be seen to be just by the populace?
Consider the current Shockley case. Back when it happened, it was obvious that the departmental investigation had found problems. The initial investigation found some “grand jury matters”.
This all occurred as the STLPD was changing chiefs. The case was referred to the prosecutors for “review”. The Federal Justice folks passed on the case; they could not find any reason to prosecute either criminally or from a civil-rights standpoint.

At that point, the case was in limbo. No doubt concerned citizens were upset that the case was in the hands of prosecutors but nothing seemed to be happening. I would hazard that to the average joe on the street, the department would appear to have been passing the buck...

However, the case did actually go to trial. This is a common complaint of activists; that police officers don’t “face justice”. Well, Shockley did. A full-bore, formal trial for Murder in the First Degree. And he was acquitted.

To my way of thinking, the activist folks got exactly what they wanted, but not the result they desired. Unfortunately, sometimes guilty people skate, sometimes the prosecution simply fails to make a case (the general consensus here), or the evidence is such that the accused must be acquitted.
We (the police) are well aware of this and sometimes we make perfectly righteous arrests of very bad people who are tried and not convicted, or cases thrown out before ever they go to trial.
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