So that figure on officers convicted for murder after fatal shootings - 0.04 percent - lingers, remaining as relevant as ever.
The verdict comes about 11 months after excruciating bystander video showed Chauvin impassively kneeling on the neck and back of Floyd, handcuffed and lying prone. His bail was revoked and he was placed in handcuffs and removed from the court through a side door. But perhaps not this case was such an extreme outlier in so many ways, from the disturbing video to the bipartisan condemnation of Chauvin’s actions, that what happened here likely can’t be generalized to other police killings. Chauvin, wearing a mask in court, had no apparent reaction to the guilty verdict. The guilty verdict against Chauvin may represent a start toward that level of accountability. “What would deter is seeing many other officers go to prison,” Stinson said. Officers have to know that they will get in trouble for violating the law - that other people in the system won’t protect them simply because they are police. Every actor in this system, from the public to police to prosecutors to judges, has to work to hold law enforcement accountable for serious crimes. And the public, who make up the juries that convict officers, generally see police as heroes and don’t want to question their judgment, especially in tense, possibly life-or-death situations.įor accountability to happen, all of that has to change. Very surprised no questions from jury at all, even on causation, suggests didn’t really consider the legal merits.
Prosecutors, who work closely with police on a daily basis on their other cases, have incentives to not aggravate their important colleagues in blue. Chauvin had right to have a jury decide on aggravation, or waive that right and have Judge Cahill decide on aggravation, and he opted to waive and have judge decide, assuming there was a guilty verdict at all. The people investigating the officer are usually police themselves - with institutional incentives, such as the “ blue wall of silence,” to protect their own from a criminal charge or conviction. The public has seen that in recent years, as several high-profile police killings of Black people haven’t led to convictions or even charges, including Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, and Breonna Taylor.Ī confluence of policy, law, and culture comes together during investigations into police killings to protect officers. Sign up to receive our newsletter each Friday. Vox’s German Lopez is here to guide you through the Biden administration’s burst of policymaking.
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