Friday, August 14, 2015

California becomes the first state to ban secret jury deliberations when police use lethal force


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/12/1411401/-California-becomes-the-first-state-to-ban-secret-jury-deliberations-when-police-use-lethal-force?detail=email

California Governor Jerry Brown announces emergency drought legislation at the CalO ES State Operations Center in Mather, California, February 19, 2014. Brown announced legislation on Wednesday to provide $687 million in emergency drought relief to the pa

Will this end police brutality? No, but it's a huge effin deal.
Gov. Jerry Brown just signed a law making California the first state in the country to ban the secretive grand jury process in cases where police use lethal force.
SB 227, authored by state Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), makes California the first state to ban the use of grand juries to decide whether law enforcement should face criminal charges in use-of-force cases. 
The ban, which will go into effect next year, comes after grand juries failed to indict police officers who killed unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York, last year, heightening scrutiny of the process.
Mitchell argues that the grand jury process, during which evidence is presented to a panel of civilians in secret, fosters a lack of trust in the system.
This legislation will force decisions to prosecute police out into the open in California. District attorneys can no longer present a highly skewed case to a grand jury, and then when the grand jury opts not to indict, hide behind the jurors for political cover. 
this doesn't address the often cozy relationships between police departments and district attorneys, it at least gives us the peace of mind, in the largest state in the country with the highest number of people killed by police, to know that the process should be more clear and transparent.
This is a significant step in the right direction. It's one of 25 reforms or so needed in each state, but we must celebrate victories as they come.
by virtue of the subject here implies the skulduggery that can occur in the closed door gatherings of those who have like minded agendas from the scotus down this is a secret society of law makers and shakers who impose their will on the rest of us like 2008 republican closed door meeting to refuse everything Obama who suffered Americans republican and Democrat.

refusing cameras and open doors to reporters shows like police and body cams they know what goes on would not be approved by those of us who pay their salaries so they hide and emerge with a decision that almost always hurts one side usually the side that has the legitimate claim example voter rights act slashing of sect 4 by scotus right wing side who gets hurt voters not voting for republicans.