Loretta Lynch Thanks Prosecutor in Michael Brown Case For Calling Police ‘Substandard...Lazy... Incompetent’
(CNSNews.com) -- After giving a speech [1] focusing in part on the erosion of trust between citizens and the police, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch [2] thanked the prosecutor in the Michael Brown case for saying police officers in Missouri are “substandard,” “lazy” and “incompetent.”
“You talked earlier about the support of varied and various departments," said Robert McCulloch [3], prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, Missouri.
"What I’d like to suggest, though, is that in my jurisdiction we have a number of departments that are substandard... and they tend to get substandard officers and they’re paying them minimum wage in some cases - or perhaps 10 or 11 bucks an hour in some other cases - and you just imagine...
“They are certified under the academy and they’ve done that, but they’re lazy, they’re incompetent,” McCulloch said.
“Right. Well said, thank you. Thank you,” Lynch said immediately after McCulloch made his remarks during a question and answer session Tuesday following the attorney general's speech about restoring trust in law enforcement at the National District Attorneys Association's Capital Conference [4] in Washington.
The event was organized by the NDAA and held in a ballroom of the Willard InterContinental Hotel, located near the White House.
An elected Democrat, McCulloch was in the national spotlight for his investigation of Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson for the August 2014 fatal shooting of robbery suspect Brown.
A grand jury directed by McCulloch’s office decided to not indict Wilson. The decision sparked rioting [5] on the streets of Ferguson, resulting in large-scale property damage and an investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
However, a March 2015 report [6]by DOJ’s Civil Rights Division concluded that Wilson’s actions did “not constitute prosecutable violations under the applicable federal criminal rights statute.”
During her speech, Lynch talked about an “erosion” of trust between some communities and the police, adding that one of her “main objectives” as attorney general was to advocate a new approach that would restore trust in law enforcement.
“This approach — viewing them as problem solvers — will encourage, in my view, the open dialogue that will help bring about… a better relationship between law enforcement and the communities we all serve. It squares directly with one of my main objectives as attorney general, which is to shore up the trust between law enforcement authorities and our constituents wherever that trust has been eroded.
“And of course we’ve all seen some of those incidents that have led to that erosion and we know that not only are we dealing with the impact of current events, but we’re dealing with the burden of a historical memory of people who look at the current set of viral videos and view it as a continuation of a relationship that many communities experience,” Lynch said.
“In fact, as painful as it has been to see these incidents on screen, on television, it has in fact allowed us to have a dialogue about this issue. It's painful, but I think it ultimately can be constructive because now we have communities saying, ‘This is what we’ve been talking about’,” the attorney general added.
Related: Think Tank: Data Show Black Lives Most Threatened by Violent Criminals, Not the Police [7]
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