Over and over again today the headlines are filled with stories about police officers who are prosecuted in relation to shootings. The numbers are staggering. Is this due to more cops turning bad? Or could it be something else? R. Barry Andrews recently released a statement in which he addressed some important issues.
"Prosecutors and District Attorneys are elected by the voters while State’s Attorneys are generally appointed by the Governor of the State," Andrews stated. "The commonality is that their livelihood hinges on their political support. The result is that they literally throw cops 'under the bus' to appease a segment of the community who are screaming for blood."
"This began in 1991 with the Rodney King case. The Los Angeles District Attorney got a Grand Jury to indict four LA cops, only to lose the case at trial. It is widely known that a skilled prosecutor can get a seated Grand Jury to indict a ham sandwich and that has proven out in case after case throughout the country. As the prosecution determines what evidence the Grand Jury will hear, their ability to obtain indictments is skewed."
"When a prosecutor actually presents all of the available information, as in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases, the likelihood is no indictment. When prosecutors decide to play politics with hot-button cases, as in Baltimore and Cincinnati, indictments that are destined to fail is the result."
"Marilyn Mosby, the Baltimore City State’s Attorney stood before a press conference and made it clear that she was willing to railroad cops to appease the protestors. She charged six officers with felony crimes in the death Freddie Gray. One officer’s trial ended in a hung jury, two others resulted in not guilty verdicts and then she decided to forgo the rest."
"Joe Deters, the Hamilton County, Ohio prosecutor stood before a press conference in the death of Samuel Dubose by Raymond Tensing, a University of Cincinnati police officer, and called for the disbanding of a State University Police Department. Tensing’s first trial ended in a hung jury and his second trial is scheduled for late May, 2017."
"What would appear to the easiest of the high profile cases also resulted in a hung jury. A North Charleston, South Carolina police officer was captured on video shooting an unarmed man running away from him. His retrial will be coming sometime in 2017."
"Charging officers with Murder for an on-duty shooting is an extremely high bar for the prosecution to reach. It requires the intent of 'purposeful' or proving that the death occurred during the commission of a felony. "
"Murder charges have resulted in not guilty verdicts in Texas and Kentucky. The South Carolina and Ohio cases have yet to reach a conclusion, and the Illinois case has yet to go to trial."
R. Barry Andrews spent twenty-one years as the Executive Director of Police Training Institute, Inc., a non-profit advanced law enforcement training organization. In the tradition of great police novel writers, his police fiction novels are gritty, raw and real. Though he writes works of fiction, they are based on real world facts. Andrews is the author of two police novels:
The New Recruit - Set in Cincinnati, this is a fictional novel which introduces the realities of becoming and being an urban American cop. Matt Davis is a 23 year old who has just graduated from UCLA with a degree in criminal justice. His parents tell him it’s time to find a job and he applies to be a cop in Cincinnati, Ohio. The reader follows Matt through the rigorous pre-employment testing and while in Cincinnati, he witnesses a murder. The book follows the investigation of the homicide while Matt waits to hear if he has been selected.
The Female Recruit - The second of a three book fictional series about the realities of becoming (being) a cop in urban America. Lissa Harding is a powerful woman whose only career aspiration is to be a cop. She moves to the big city after finishing college and takes a job as a security guard where she is assaulted at work. She turns this tragic event into a positive when she takes a position as a sex crimes investigator because of her ability to relate to the victims.
R. Barry Andrews is available for media interviews and speaking engagements. He can be reached using the information below or by email at coptrainer56@yahoo.com. All of his books are available at online book retailers. More information, including a number of pieces that address police shootings and the realities of being a cop today are available at his website at http://www.rbarryandrews.com.
About R. Barry Andrews:
R. Barry Andrews spent twenty-one years as the Executive Director of Police Training Institute, Inc., a non-profit advanced law enforcement training organization. He now writes police novels based on his experiences in the field and in the classroom. He resides in Ohio.
Contact:
R. Barry Andrews
coptrainer56@yahoo.com
http://www.rbarryandrews.com
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