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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
NOT THE BEES
Indictment is not sentencing — it's the formal accusation to proceed with a trial at all and bump up the investigations. There's for all practical purposes no burden of proof to this. People who have already been conclusively proven innocent can and often do get indicted.
To show how fantastically rare this is, in over 160,000 cases in 2010, and a grand jury failed to indict 11 of them.
Suspiciously, a plurality of failed indictments are...wait for it...police shootings.
edited 24th Nov '14 8:15:15 PM by Pykrete
Lost in Space
Yeah, but this is a cop. Different rules apply. (ninja!)
edited 24th Nov '14 8:15:43 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Raven Wilder
Though, given how overworked the court system is, it makes sense not to proceed with an indictment if you think there's no chance of a guilty verdict.
"It takes an idiot to do cool things, that's why it's cool" - Haruhara Haruko
It it probably naive to think that local prosecutors, who works with the local police on a daily basis, would remain unbiased and essentially decide to bite the hand that feeds them
NOT THE BEES
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Which would be fine if it worked for anyone who doesn't also happen to be a cop. But on the whole, non-indictments are several orders of magnitude less frequent than failures to convict.
edited 24th Nov '14 8:23:54 PM by Pykrete
Why shouldn't cops be unbiased here?
edited 24th Nov '14 8:23:41 PM by CassidyTheDevil
Lost in Space
It's not the police whose bias is at issue, it's the prosecutors. There's an inherent conflict of interest.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Raven Wilder
If it weren't for the public protests, though, would this case have even gone to a grand jury in the first place?
NOT THE BEES
Most likely not, and it speaks more to incestuous self-regulation than it does to the lack of evidence. Even what shaky evidence was there was more than you get in a large number of indictments that do go off.
Again — indictment carries no burden of proof. People proven innocent get indicted all the time.
edited 24th Nov '14 8:46:13 PM by Pykrete
When you say people proven innocent are indicted all the time, do you mean the defendants are often found innocent during a trial after being indicted or are obviously innocent people are often indicted despite the lack of evidence.
Coz the first is completely reasonable while the second seems messed up.
edited 24th Nov '14 9:08:11 PM by nightwyrm_zero
edited 24th Nov '14 9:10:56 PM by Ekuran
Gunpla is amazing!
And now there are fires and riots. Sigh.
Though I have a feeling 95% of the people causing this shit were hoping for no indictment just so they could start rioting.
This is sad all around. No indictment (Though I can see how they decided no indictment) and riots. Worse case scenario.
edited 24th Nov '14 9:12:57 PM by Thorn14
V
I've heard reports on The BBC saying that violence is not desired, but necessary in order to bring attention to the issue.
I think they got a point, there. A lot of people tend to sweep issues under the carpet unless things ge nasty.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Indeed. The problem is that violence will not be targeted appropriately, it'll just be a bunch of random, disorganized looting that'll be just as easy to sweep under the rug.
I despise hypocrisy, unless of course it is my own.
Chaotic Greedy
...They must have done this on purpose. There's no way anyone can sincerely believe he's clean enough not even a trial is necessary.
"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."
More like giant cherries
It's pretty obvious that Ferguson police will never face justice if left to their own devices, so escalating it to the national media is the only hope people have.
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play
V
International media might be more accurate.
Keep Rolling On
So was the policeman justified in shooting the kid, or not? There's no video evidence?
"Can't tell" is probably the right term.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Yeah. I mean, if it had gone to trial and I'd been on the jury, I myself would have voted "not guilty" on all the criminal counts. The officer himself is not provably guilty of a damn thing. But there was definitely probable cause to believe that he may have done it, which is the standard for a grand jury.
This is purely the prosecutor trying to nol-pross this without looking like he's whitewashing it, and failing miserably.
I despise hypocrisy, unless of course it is my own.
To show how fantastically rare this is, in over 160, 000 cases in 2010, and a grand jury failed to indict 11 of them.
Suspiciously, a plurality of failed indictments are...wait for it...police shootings.
And people wonder why normal folk have absolutely no faith in the American police and justice system.
Indiana Solo
That's probably because police generally shoot only when it's necessary?
I'm baaaaaaack
Lost in Space
You forgot Sarcasm Mode tags.
Most police are honest most of the time. But when they do something bad and are not punished in any meaningful way for it, it undermines faith in the entire institution.
edited 25th Nov '14 4:47:03 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
So there's going to be no trial now? That's it?
Perhaps there may be riots, or protests if you're lucky.
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