In a statement released Monday night, the American Civil Liberties Union affirmed their belief that police are not entitled to fair and just treatment under the law.
Despite the fact that a grand jury spent months evaluating vast amounts of evidence, listened to three coroners’ autopsy reports, and examined myriad ballistic reports and witness testimonies, the ACLU condemned the grand jury’s conclusion not to indict Darren Wilson for the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
The ACLU asserted in a statement delivered by Jeffery Mittman, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, that Brown’s death is part of an “alarming national trend of officers using excessive force against people of color, often during routine encounters.”
The fact that a Ferguson grand jury determined that officer Wilson used his weapon in self-defense–after the 6′ 5″, 290-lb Brown struggled with Wilson in the patrol car, punching him in the face and later charging at him–seems not to be relevant for Mittman and the ACLU.
The statement also asserted: “The ACLU will continue to fight for racial justice. We must end the prevailing policing paradigm where police departments are more like occupying forces, imposing their will to control communities. This ‘us vs. them’ policing antagonizes communities by casting a blanket of suspicion over entire neighborhoods, often under the guise of preventing crime.”
Yet, although Wilson and Brown were of different races, this was not a case of racial injustice. In the press conference after St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch announced the grand jury’s decision not to indict Darren Wilson, he explained that witnesses who testified that Brown indeed came charging after Wilson were in fact African-Americans.
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