Justice deferred
8th August 2016 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor
After being assured by local, state and federal elected officials and law enforcement agencies that the investigation into the officer-involved killing of 37-year-old Alton Sterling by two Baton Rouge police officers on July 5 would be “done by the book,” those demanding justice for the slain father of five are now getting a different song from authorities.
The public learned last week that the coroner’s report on the cause of death would not be released at this time.
The reason? The autopsy’s findings would be too explosive.
Are you kidding me?
More explosive than the video that showed two cops pinning Sterling to the ground after hitting him with a taser and shooting him at point-blank range?
More explosive than video footage of militarized Baton Rouge law enforcement officers treating law-abiding demonstrators like dangerous criminals and terrorists because law enforcement officials had received word of a “credible threat” to harm police?
More explosive than initially refusing to disclose the names of the two officers who killed Sterling but sharing information about the slain man’s previous brushes with the law with the media?
More explosive than video footage showing police going onto private property to bully, shove and arrest demonstrators even after residents demanded that cops get off their property?
This is the thing: Why is it always the civil, constitutional and human rights of the people that are the first casualty whenever the powers that be feel threatened in any way?
Why must everyone who stayed within the confines of the law be treated like animals because of the actions of a lone gunman in Dallas and one in Baton Rouge? Why is it that so many elected officials and law enforcement agencies see nothing wrong with violating the constitutional rights of law-abiding people in the wake of these police shootings and terrorist attacks in general?
One of the more interesting comparisons involves the differences in the way Mother AME Church shooter Dylan Roof was viewed and treated by police and the way the gunmen in Dallas and Baton Rouge were treated.
The assailants in Dallas and Baton Rouge were described as demonic, cowardly and diabolical while the South Carolina Mother AME shooter was described as troubled, confused and angry. The shooters in Dallas and Baton Rouge were taken out immediately — one of them by a SWAT sharpshooter and the other by a bomb-carrying robot — while the South Carolina shooter was taken to Burger King because he was hungry before being booked.
Never mind that he had just murdered nine people who he had just prayed with, including the pastor of Mother AME Church. What could be more twisted and diabolical than that?
Learning that Baton Rouge officials have decided not to release the results of Alton Sterling’s autopsy at this time is both telling and infuriating.
It is as though the powers that be don’t think Black and white people of good will have a right to be angry and indignant about the police murdering another innocent Black man. It also feels like they think we need to hear about the coroner’s findings or listen to leaders of Black Lives Matter to be motivated to take to the streets again.
There is never a good reason to conceal the truth. And there is no defensible rationale for delaying the presentation of the facts when the entire nation is watching and waiting for these results.
Elected officials may think there are good reasons to delay presenting the findings of the coroner to the public, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Nothing can erode public trust in government and the justice system faster than deceptive, dichotomous elected officials who think they have the right to control public access to information that impacts all of our lives in one way or another.
We, the people of this nation, have a right to a transparent, democratic government. No one has the right, authority or power to treat tax-paying, law-abiding citizens like children and keep them in the dark about an incident or issue that affects so many of us.
Rage and frustration about the unconstitutional killings of innocent Black and Brown people have been simmering for more than a century and have reached a boiling point several times in the past few years.
Hiding the truth — especially a truth that is already known — is not going to do anything to extinguish the fiery protests but treating the people of this state and nation like rational, law-abiding human beings with constitutional rights might actually buy elected officials a little time to at least begin to find solutions to a problem that has plagued this nation since it was founded.
All power to the people.
This article originally published in the August 8, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
