Saturday, December 20, 2014

Impunity Marches On

Bob McCulloch is turning into quite the little sideshow these days. He's the so-called St. Louis County prosecutor who rigged and manipulated the grand jury to return a no-bill on Darren Wilson for the execution of Mike Brown. [Note: I use the term "execution" in preference to "murder" because his actions and his excuses are in line with someone who summarily executes (under color of authority) rather than someone who premeditates and kills.]

McCulloch went public with the fact that he knew Witness 40 -- Sandra McElroy -- was bullshitting, lying, fabricating, etc, when she was called before the GJ to testify to what she had "witnessed" that day on Canfield Drive. Her testimony was almost word-for-word corroboration of Darren Wilson's story as reported in the St. Louis Post Dispatch the previous day. McElroy's testimony has been quoted numerous times in the media -- particularly on FOX -- to "prove" that Brown was charging the officer and did not have his hands up, yadda, yadda.

Except the "proof" is a fabrication.

McCulloch claims he knew it was fabrication and lies when his staff put her on the stand. So? The chest-out brazenness of it is pretty shocking. But then he's also said that plenty of witnesses lied to the grand jury, some on behalf of Brown and some on behalf of Wilson, and all he did was give the grand jury as much evidence and testimony as he could and let them decide whether there was evidence sufficient to charge Wilson with a crime.

They said "No," like nearly all grand juries and DAs do.

No matter what the cop does, what the testimony and evidence show, cops are almost never-ever charged with a crime when they kill someone. Sexual indiscretions, on the other hand, can get them into plenty of hot water.

McCulloch's brazenness in this case mirrors his brazenness in many others, wherein he not only refused to indict cops who committed "street justice", he used the opportunities to smear the victims and witnesses alike, just as he did in the Darren Wilson matter. It is his way, and it's the way of most DAs. Cops are perhaps imperfect, but the people they kill are monsters who need to be put down, at least in the culture and lore of the police/DA continuum. No matter the facts.

We're seeing this brazen impunity play out again and again, all over the country, in almost every case of police killing, while the People raging in the streets over it risk becoming part of the background noise of a society and globe in crisis.

I may have said it before, but it looks to me like Authority -- in the persons of Bob McCulloch and his counterparts in much of the country, and in the persons of chiefs of police and police union honchos, and in the persons of governors and various other political leaders -- are deliberately trying to incite rebellion, perhaps as a means to gauge the depth of resistance to the New Model American System.

In other words, there is at least a suggestion in McCulloch's behavior and that of the various PDs involved in the killing of Mike Brown and its aftermath of a deliberate intent to cause rebellion in order to study it, counter it and suppress it. A large-scale social experiment you might say.

There is a growing recognition that the American justice system -- from the cops on the beat to the Supreme Court -- is broken. Disparate justice is the rule, impunity for those with power vs harsh retribution for those without is the standard. There is no sign that Our Rulers will do anything to redress the legitimate grievances of the People and restore balance to a justice system out of whack.

Incidents keep piling up, but nothing substantive is done about it. Too many people like things just the way they are.

And people like Bob McCulloch and his counterparts are brazen as all get out about it, because they know that nothing can or will be done about it under the current system, and they are confident that the current system will endure, no matter the rebellion in the streets.

Impunity marches on.

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