http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-rutten17-2009jan17,0,734720.column"The late Johnnie Cochran used to say that "the most powerful single person in the entire criminal justice system is the cop on the street."
Why?
"Because," he would explain, "he's the only person in the whole process that can summarily execute you. The chief of police doesn't have that power. The district attorney doesn't have it. The chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States doesn't have that power -- and neither does the president. But any cop out on the street can stop you at any time and, if he chooses, deprive you of your life."
It's a choice that's seldom -- if ever -- subjected to the rigorous fact-finding scrutiny of the criminal justice system. That's what makes the Alameda County district attorney's decision to file murder charges against a former Bay Area Rapid Transit officer who shot an unarmed young man to death New Year's Day so extraordinary.
More than 100 Californians are killed by law enforcement officers each year, but apparently no California cop has been criminally charged with murder for an on-duty shooting in the last 50 years. Most scholars and historians weighing in on this over the last week suspect that none ever has been."
More at the link.
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