On Grand Jury Decisions of Police Action

Life is precious. All life.

When one human takes the life of another, it is inherently tragic.  This is true whether the death occurs with malice aforethought or under justifiable circumstance. This is because the tragedy stems from the perspective of the deceased and their loved ones.  Regardless of fault or cause, there is a loss of a human soul. And that is tragic.

When this tragedy occurs at the hands of a law enforcement officer then we must examine the circumstances. It is our obligation, as a society, to do so.  Our social contract grants law enforcement an exclusive right - the use of force. Police are authorized to act in a physical and sometimes necessarily violent manner on our behalf.  This is needed to keep order.  They can do what the rest of us are not allowed to do.  We entrust them with this power and we place our faith in them to serve and protect all people.  In fact, our peaceful society derives its relative peace in part from the deterrent effect of this police power.  And we appreciate and support their efforts. 

But with that privilege comes massive responsibility.  When law enforcement officers accept the badge and gun, they swear an oath. They must do their very best to exercise their power fairly and justly. 

This is not a simple concept. This is not mathematical science. Policing requires intellect and instinct and patience and logic. Tact and calm and alertness and restraint.  But real life policing situations involve emotion and adrenaline and fear and uncertainty.

We grant the power of life and death to our protectors in the interest of security and justice. We must also grant them the benefit of the doubt. But this does not mean we should turn a blind eye to injustice.

When there is a police-related death, we, the public, mainly get our information from the media. And the reliability of this data is a whole other issue. But suffice it to say that we should not pass judgment based on these brief accounts from often unnamed or unverified sources.  The media should not determine justice.  As we place our faith in our law enforcement system, we must also place our faith in our prosecutorial and court system. They provide the "checks and balances" against corrupt or inappropriate executive (police) action. 

In these instances, Grand Juries are often impaneled to hear and review all the available evidence. These are ordinary people like you and me. They are instructed on the applicable law and are called upon to apply it to the facts, as presented. We must believe that they do their duty. And we must honor their decisions. Hopefully they will reach the "right" decision. Perhaps sometimes they are "wrong."  The system may not be perfect, but it allows our citizens to review the actions of our law enforcement officers. And that is a modern masterpiece. 

History is full of oppressive governmental police power. It existed at the dawn of civilization and it continues throughout the world today. However, a hallmark of our system of government is the following:  Not only do the citizens of this country grant our police the power to use force, we also reserve the right to review it.  This is an iconic feature of a government "by the people and for the people."  Our Grand Jury system acts as this "citizen review board."  We may agree or disagree with their individual decisions; but as long as the system remains fair and functional, we should honor the process. As such, we can retain our faith in the grand scheme of police power.

Subsequently, as these brave men and women are called upon to make very difficult and often spontaneous decisions on our streets, we would hope that they are tempered and guided by their knowledge that this system of review exists.  And also by the knowledge that we support and appreciate all they do for us in the line of duty.