Justice

In the recent past cases involving racial shootings with police the local authorities were not trusted to carry out an impartial investigation so the final determination of what happened was left up to the Department of Justice. In the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO after weeks of rioting the officer involved was exonerated. In Baltimore the case is even more perplexing. Freddie Gray a black man died while in the custody of police and in addition to the riots that followed the city paid Gray’s family 6.4 million dollars before any investigation was undertaken. Here is a news item from yesterday. The six Baltimore police officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody on April 19th, 2015 will not face federal charges due to insufficient evidence, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. The city did not pay this because of any crime. It was paid as a civil settlement. "The mayor and her staff are trying to do all they can to heal the wounds in the community, and this is a step in the right direction." "This settlement will give some people in the community at least some sense of justice." Normally as it was in the OJ situation the civil case is brought after the criminal case fails but in this case it was the reverse.