USA Today reports on AG Eric Holder’s trip to Ferguson, MO. Holder offered comments that, like Gov. Jay Nixon’s comments calling for a “vigorous prosecution” before there has even been an investigation into the shooting of Michael Brown, will probably end up inflaming rather than calming.
“I am the Attorney General of the United States, but I am also a black man,” Holder told Ferguson residents at a community meeting. “I can remember being stopped on the New Jersey turnpike on two occasions and accused of speeding. Pulled over. … ‘Let me search your car’ … Go through the trunk of my car, look under the seats and all this kind of stuff. I remember how humiliating that was and how angry I was and the impact it had on me.”
As the attorney general, Holder is supposed to set aside his own prejudices and biases and act solely based on evidence and the law. But as attorney general, Eric Holder has shown a stubbornness and a bitterness over the years that have contributed to his politicization of the entire Justice Department.
“The eyes of the nation and the world are watching Ferguson right now,” Holder told a group of community leaders assembled at a local community college. “The world is watching because the issues raised by the shooting of Michael Brown predate this incident. This is something that has a history to it, and the history simmers beneath the surface in more communities than just Ferguson.”
What about this case? What about the robbery that Brown did before the shooting? What about how that may have impacted his state of mind when Officer Wilson approached him? What about the reports that Brown attacked Officer Wilson?
What about the facts of this case?
Bringing evidence and prejudice — there’s that word again — from other cases will not stand up in a fair trail in a court of law. But it doesn’t sound like Eric Holder is interested in a fair trial.
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