Extemporaneous musings, occasionally poetic, about life in its richly varied dimensions, especially as relates to history, theology, law, literature, science, by one who is an attorney, ordained minister, historian, writer, and African American.
Monday, September 10, 2018
AMBER ROSE OF TEXAS
Relative to the female Dallas, Texas, police officer, who killed an innocent black man, in his own apartment, who is now claiming that she thought she was in her own apartment, named "Amber;" her highly improbable utterance, even if untruthful probably suffices to satisfy police "fear for their lives" defense standards established to protect the police by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the era of Trump and well before him, excuses need not have made sense, when it came to whites' killing or injuring black people. As long as any sort of audible reason or excuse was advanced, articulated, by the allegedly offensive white person, the duty and burden of proof remained on the black person to carry if they were still alive.
No inquiry was made into believability at the production stage of evidence. Rather, any inquiry into the merits was postponed until the trial on the merits. But, the merits too often were never reached in civil cases due to motions for summary judgment, a technique of civil procedure that empowers the judge to determine the sufficiency of rebuttal evidence in advance of trial, without live testimony, on affidavits .
So the United States Supreme Court declared in the '60s and '70s after its Green v. McDonnell Douglas decision. The same principle was reasserted by it again in Tennessee v. Garner in 1989, in a police brutality case, which easily enables cops to kill with impunity, so long as they articulate the flimsiest of lies. No expert witness can testify against them, nor can anyone else: supervisor or another cop who was not present at the time of the occurrence!
In the criminal context, which I am much less experienced with than things civil, pattern criminal jury instructions must follow federal law as set forth by the Supreme Court. Who knows? Once that exculpatory police "fear for their lives" jury instruction is used, it is at least possible that a Texas jury will let "Amber" walk free!
In truth the laws, politics, policies , and law enforcement agencies were, and are all aligned against black people by the vast, majority-white-supremacist population. This has been the actual case since the nation's founding in 1789. Our ancestors were "miracle workers!" So too are we, those who yet survive, thrive, multiply, and prosper in this fiery furnace and this lions' den, this rugged cross, that was intended for our post-Civil War doom!