Two Police Officers Who Shot and Killed Mentally Ill Homeless Man Actually Charged with Murder

Holy smokes—two police officers who shot and killed a mentally ill man near Albuquerque last March have actually been charged with murder.

District attorney Kari Brandenburg referenced the post-Ferguson protests as she explained her decision to drop the secretive grand jury process—which, as a legal mechanism, skews heavily toward indictments for average citizens and heavily toward acquittal in cases of police shootings—and charge the men in a normal court proceeding.

From the Associated Press:

The decision to bring murder charges occurred at a time when police tactics are under intense scrutiny nationwide, fueled by the fatal shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri, and the chokehold death of another unarmed man in New York City. Grand juries declined to charge officers in those cases, leading to large protests.

Acknowledging the frustration over the secrecy of the proceedings in those cases, the Albuquerque district attorney said she would bypass the grand jury process and instead present the murder case to a judge at a preliminary hearing that will be open to the public.

“Unlike Ferguson and unlike in New York City, we’re going to know. The public is going to have that information,” District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said.

During the Ferguson and Ferguson-solidarity protests last year, I heard more than one observer dismiss the student walkouts and Black Friday disruptions—sometimes sneeringly—as useless at best.

Those types always remind me of this young man, Dennis G. Lennox III from Michigan, who <a href=”http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-mccains-speech/Content?oid=668974
“>I met at the Republican National Convention back in 2008:

As we watched leftist demonstrators from inside the convention’s barrier fence, he waved them off disdainfully, saying protest was “uncivilized” and “a waste of time.” I agreed that protest isn’t always an elegant-looking exercise but asked what he thought those people should’ve been doing about their grievances instead.

“They should do something more productive,” he said sagely. “Like write articles and essays.”

Articles, essays, and blog posts are great and all—I’m writing one right now!—but it seems likely, based on Brandenburg’s explanation, that had the Ferguson protests never happened, we would’ve heard a different announcement today.