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December 17, 2014
Maryland police shoot 15 civilians, but the only cop prosecuted is the one who killed a puppy
By Danny Weil
As I wrote in May 2013: "The contemporary Supreme Court has played a key role in the creation and evolution of the modern corporate police state through rulings which grant absolute immunity for prosecutors, immunity from civil suits for police who lie to grand juries, and the right to strip search individuals charged with traffic infractions and other minor offenses"
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In an article dated July 2013, I described how police in Montgomery County Maryland, a D.C. Suburb, shot 14 individuals and killed 9 over the prior three years (http://www.dailycensored.com/maryland-police-shoot-14-kill-9-the-ebbing-police-state/).
This included killing a man with an ice pick, killing a man threatening suicide and killing a robbery suspect after a hostage escaped. Of the 14 shootings, police were not criminally charged in any of the incidents.
Since then, in Nov 2013, 7 Montgomery County police officers shot and killed a man armed with an AR 15 assault rifle, after police attempted to negotiate with the man for 12 minutes (http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2013/11/19/police-shoot-kill-man-armed-with-rifle/).
While Montgomery County failed to prosecute a single police officer for the shooting of civilians in at least 15 incidents, in October 2014 a Baltimore police officer was sentenced in Montgomery County to 12 months in prison for killing a puppy. It is likely he was prosecuted because his "crime" occurred outside the course of official duty (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/man-to-be-sentenced-for-killing-puppy-after-it-defecated-on-carpet/2014/10/08/9aa530e2-4ed2-11e4-aa5e-7153e466a02d_story.html).
Meanwhile, in neighboring Fairfax County Virginia, local police have refused to cooperate with a federal investigation of the killing of an unarmed man by a Fairfax police officer. County police have refused to disclose the name or rank of the officer involved in the shooting (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/local/wp/2014/12/04/feds-say-fairfax-county-slowed-federal-investigation-of-john-geer-police-shooting/?hpid=z4).
If police and prosecutors act as if they are above the law, the Supreme Court bears some responsibility for this.
As I wrote in May 2013:
"The contemporary Supreme Court has played a key role in the creation and evolution of the modern corporate police state through rulings which grant absolute immunity for prosecutors, immunity from civil suits for police who lie to grand juries, and the right to strip search individuals charged with traffic infractions and other minor offenses" (http://www.dailycensored.com/boyd-vs-us-the-decline-of-the-4th-5th-amendments-and-rise-of-the-modern-corporate-police-state-in-america/).
Providing police and prosecutors with immunity undermines public safety, as well as Constitutional rights. This is part of an assault on democracy waged by the contemporary Supreme Court, which also includes the Court's roll in gerrymandering and voter suppression (http://www.opednews.com/articles/Gerrymandering--Voter-Sup-by-Danny-Weil-Court-Decision_Elections_Electoral-College_Electoral-Politics-141102-243.htm).
With an out of control Supreme Court marinated in what can only be called a modern police state, and with angry howls from racists for martial law over the protests sweeping the nation regarding the killing of countless black men, one can only speculate what a Jeb Bush presidency might usher forth (http://www.opednews.com/articles/Can-America-stomach-anothe-by-Danny-Weil-American-Hypocrisy_American_History_Bush_Bush-Appointments-141128-751.html).
I am an author and investigative journalist who has written more than four hundred articles for Truthout, Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, Daily Censored, Project Censored and more. I received two awards from Project Censored, one in 2010 and one in 2012.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2009/08/24/obama-and-duncan-s-education-policy-like-bush-s-only-worse/
http://www.projectcensored.org/10-hr-347-would-make-many-forms-of-nonviolent-protest-illegal/
I am part of Truthout's "Public Intellectual" project.
I have written seven books on education, most recently:
Charter School Movement: History, Politics, Policies, Economics and Effectiveness
(http://books.google.com.ec/books/about/Charter_School_Movement.html?id=Fk8kAQAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y).
I have been a federally certified public interest attorney for more than 30 years.
I have been a tenant organizer and educational worker and organizer for 40 years.