The Wheels of Acquittal Turn Again

Cops & protestors in St. Louis on Friday after former
SLPD officer Jason Stockley's acquittal [Photo - Theo Welling]

Given the protests and civil unrest that have rocked the city of St. Louis in recent days, former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley is arguably one of the most despised individuals in the state right now.

The crowds of people who took to the streets in protest after St. Louis Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson found Stockley not guilty of murder for the 2011 shooting death of 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith represented a wide cross-section of the local community.

Young and old. Black, white, Hispanic and Asian, people of different faiths.

All understandably confused and outraged over what is widely viewed as a gross miscarriage of justice in a state still recovering from the aftermath of the protests over the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown by 28-year-old former Ferguson PD officer Darren Wilson in the nearby northeastern suburb of Ferguson, Missouri in 2014.

The similarities are startling.

In both cases, young white male police officers used deadly force in broad daylight after pursuing young male African-American suspects fleeing police after allegedly being involved in relatively low level felonies - Brown had reportedly robbed a local convenience store and Smith was allegedly selling heroin in a parking lot behind a fast-food chicken spot.

Both former officers used handguns against unarmed suspects based on what they both claimed was self defense, Brown and Wilson were engaged in some kind of physical struggle through the window of Wilson's police car before he fired twelve shots at Brown.

Smith sped off in his Buick in an attempt to flee, about 45 seconds before the high-speed, one-mile chase ended, then-officer Stockley was heard on the police SUV's internal video camera saying "going to kill this motherfucker, don't you know it."

Former St. Louis PD officer Jason Stockley

As the Huffington Post reported, Stockley ordered his partner Brian Bianchi to use their police SUV to ram Smith's vehicle to stop it.

Stockley got out holding his personal AK-47 assault rifle (which is not permitted by department regulations) with his department-issued pistol in his holster.

About 15 seconds after reaching the driver's side of Smith's Buick, Stockley ordered Smith to put his hands up - the driver's side air bag in Smith's car had deployed when the police SUV rammed it.

Stockley then removes his police pistol from his holster and fires five shots into the car, killing Smith - he claimed Smith was reaching for a gun.

But what's strange is that Stockley then walks back to the police SUV - remember he just shot a man.

Both a bystander's cell phone video and internal video cameras in the police SUV show Stockley open the back door and put his personal AK-47 rifle on the back seat, then he returns to Smith's car.

Then, the same cameras show Stockley walk back to the SUV a second time, and this time he's clearly seen rifling around in his personal backpack before emerging, going back to Smith's car and getting into the driver's seat after other officers remove Smith's body from the car.

It's there that prosecutors claim he planted the .38 revolver found in Smith's car - if Smith had tried to use that gun, why was Stockley's the only DNA found on it?

Take a couple minutes to look at the video of Stockley - watch it for yourself, both the bystander's cellphone video and the internal police SUV video are synchronized next to each other.

I estimate he's rifling around in his backpack for about 17 seconds, notice how he positions and hunches his body so that the internal police SUV camera can't show what he's doing.

But again, as in the case of Darren Wilson shooting Michael Brown in 2014, Stockley claimed he had no choice but to use deadly force against Anthony Lamar Smith because he was in fear for his life - but like Wilson, the only real evidence that he was in fear for his life is his own testimony.

No charges were ever filed against Darren Wilson in Ferguson, and it took five years before Jason Stockley was charged with murder - ending in an acquittal last week.

St. Louis PD officers knock an old woman who was
protesting to the ground before stepping on her

The police reaction to the subsequent protests by members of the local community and activists was similar too.

The heavily-militarized police response in Ferguson, including armored vehicles, was widely condemned around the world.

In St. Louis as people began engaging in peaceful protests on Friday, police responded by showing up in riot gear including helmets, shields and batons.

An older female protester was knocked to the ground and stepped on by cops.

It's pretty troubling given that she was exercising her 1st Amendment rights to protest against what many see as a flagrant miscarriage of justice.

That kind of authoritarian response certainly stands in contrast to the police response in Charlottesville, Virginia a few weeks ago when local and state police basically stood there and watched as Neo-Nazi, KKK members and alt-right nitwits, many of whom were openly carrying assault rifles and handguns, marched past - white supremacist protester 52 year-old Richard Wilson Preston shot a handgun directly into the crowd and nearby police did nothing.

My sense is that the acquittal of Jason Stockley and the subsequent response by police is what largely fueled a small fraction of the hundreds of peaceful protestors to throw rocks and paint at the home of Mayor Lyda Krewson's home late Friday night - which prompted police to use tear gas to disperse crowds.

The frustration of protesters, activists and human rights advocates is also compounded by the fact that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has already made clear that under his oversight, the Department of Justice will not use its authority to investigate local police departments for racially-biased policing, violations of citizen's Constitutional rights or excessive use of deadly force.

It all seems to point to a White House and Justice Department that tacitly reinforces a two-tier system of justice and a polarizing view of race in this country.

Ms. Texas Margana Wood: not a Trumper

A nation in which we now have a president who vents outrage and fury depending upon the race and ethnicity of the person involved.

For example, both Trump and his press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders spent much of last week directing anger at black ESPN anchor Jemele Hill and the sports network after she called Trump a white supremacist on her personal Twitter account.

Frankly their self-righteous indignation was laughable considering Trump's habitual crude insults and serial misogyny.

In contrast, after Ms. Texas (who is white) Margana Wood publicly called Trump out at the Ms. America pageant last Sunday night - when asked about his response to the Charlottesville protests, she rebuked him for not making a more definitive statement deploring white supremacy.

Trump said nothing about her comments.

Much like his radio silence when white Americans commit acts of terrorism on people of color or Muslims, but when a terrorist linked with ISIS commits an act of violence, his Twitter feed blows up.

But to get back to my original point, it's pretty clear that the protests in St. Louis are about much more than another white police officer once again facing no legal repercussions for shooting an unarmed African-American motorist.

The protests are also a reaction to complacency and lack of leadership on issues of racial injustice by the federal government and people's impatience and frustration that the same racial bias still permeates the judicial system in St. Louis three years after the events in Ferguson.

Judge Timothy Wilson

As Jeremy Stahl reported for Slate on Friday, Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson's justifications for acquitting Jason Stockley outlined in his 30-page opinion are pretty shaky, he almost seems to be reaching for a reason to acquit the former St. Louis PD officer - despite a planted gun that doesn't have the victim's DNA on it and video that shows clear premeditation to kill.

Over the past few days I've spent some time reading people's reactions to the case on social media, and it's interesting to see how individual perspectives seem to break down along the same political and ideological divisions that are parroted in progressive and conservative media.

Some people's resentment is directed at the protesters, expressing the opinion that Jason Stockley's fatal shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith was justified simply because he fled the police.

In my view if the guy was selling heroin, fine, then arrest him, charge him and let a court find him guilty and sentence him accordingly.

But for Stockley to act as judge, jury and executioner for a low-level felony, then plant a gun to justify murder violates the principles of law enforcement and the Constitution.

There's no "many sides" on that issue, there is only right and wrong.