When cops kill, silence can be deadly
By 
If the fatal shooting in Missouri last weekend of 18-year-old Michael Brown was simply about a police officer’s use of deadly force, it would be like most of the estimated 400 or so cases in the country every year, with little notice outside of the community and very little public outcry.
And if it was like the overwhelming majority of those cases, no charges would be brought with investigators – usually fellow police officers – and prosecutors declaring it a justifiable homicide with the only witnesses being the cops and the dead victim. There would be a dispute about whether the unarmed teen obeyed the officer’s order to move to the sidewalk and whether he attacked the officer, resulting in the officer drawing and firing his weapon in self-defense. But, again, interest would dissipate and the shooting would fade from public view.
But the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, a predominantly black suburb of St. Louis, is as much a matter of silence by police as it is over the disputed facts of the case. Ferguson police and county prosecutors have so far refused to release any information in the case regarding the officer in the shooting, who has been placed on leave, including his name and how many times Brown was shot. The FBI has stepped in to investigate but that is a rare occurrence in such shootings.
It’s a situation that CommonWealth examined in our winter issue. Since 2002, local and State Police in Massachusetts have shot and killed at least 73 civilians, ranging from a 15-year-old New Bedford boy to a retired MBTA mechanic in Framingham. No criminal charges were brought in any of the deadly incidents. In at least a dozen of the cases examined by CommonWealth, there were enough questions and conflicts raised that the case could have been brought to a grand jury or at least a judicial inquest. The common thread in all of them is the cases were investigated by either State Police or, in the case of shootings in Boston, Springfield, and Worcester, fellow officers.
While police shootings are reported on individually, rarely does the media take a deeper look. The Las Vegas Journal Review published an exhaustive series and database a few years back entitled “Always Justified,” in which they examined hundreds of officer-involved shootings in their county. Locally, the Globe ran a series similar to CommonWealth’s examining police shootings, fatal and non-fatal, and the website Blackstonian.com has been tracking deadly police shootings of minorities in the state for several years.
Part of the problem is the insular manner in which police shootings are investigated and the lack of transparency and oversight in those investigations. Despite the obvious conflicts of interest — with police investigating themselves or district attorneys, who work with local and state police, investigating the incidents — rarely is a shooting investigation handed off to an unbiased or uninvolved third-party. DAs are reluctant to recuse themselves and, when they do, it merely goes to another district attorney. While the attorney general can also look into the shootings, it has not been done in recent memory in Massachusetts. And only two judicial inquests, one in Fitchburg and one in Boston, have been undertaken in fatal officer-involved shootings since 2002.
As the Rev. Talbert Swan of Springfield told CommonWealth earlier this year, there needs to be independent investigation to satisfy both sides. “There’s no way that any type of objective decision can result out of an investigation by folks investigating themselves,” he says. “The public deserves no less than to have full confidence in the results of an investigation. If my son were involved in the execution of a crime, and you allowed me and his mother and his siblings to do the investigation, you can imagine what the recommendations will be.”
— JACK SULLIVAN
BEACON HILL
The state puts the brakes on the provisional license granted to a medical marijuana dispensary headed by a Colorado man who falsely claimed to have a college degree.
The Berkshire Eagle takes the Legislature to task for coming up with a Broadway-bound theatre tax credit bill that excludes smaller venues like Pittsfield’s Barrington Stage and the Williamstown Theater Festival and Cambridge’s Loeb Drama Center at the American Repertory Theater –which looks particularly egregious since “All the Way,”, starring Bryan Cranston as LBJ, picked up Tony awards for Best Actor and Best Play earlier this year –went to Broadway from Cambridge.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
The struggling Brockton Fire Department, with a shortage of nearly two dozen firefighters and only two operational ladder trucks, took another blow when the fire chief shut down one of the department’s fire engines because there is no money to pay overtime.
The town of Somerset may not receive $3 million from a state fund designed to offset the loss of tax revenue by the closing of the Brayton Point power plant. Meanwhile, a coalition of environmental groups released a survey of town residents who were asked their preference for reuse of the facility, with renewable energy and tourism-related uses the highest priorities.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
The New Republic ’s Alec MacGillis says the military-style, heavily armored police on view in Ferguson, Missouri, are the awful legacy of post-9/11 spending. Vox’s Matt Yglesias says if Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is too busy tweeting about education policy to rein in tear-gas-firing riot police, it’s time for the White House to step in.
The Atlantic surveys the legalized marijuana landscape in Boulder, Colorado. A Wall Street Journal op-ed column calls legalized marijuana “a public health menace.”
The New York Times asks whether Martha’s Vineyard is big enough for President Obama and Hillary Clinton.
ELECTIONS
Republican gubernatorial candidates Charlie Baker and Mark Fisher debate at WBUR and find little common ground.
State Republican Party chairwoman Kirsten Hughes goes schmoozing for votes in Dorchester.
The Herald spends a day on the campaign trail with Martha Coakley.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Gov. Deval Patrick says the two sides in the Market Basket dispute are nearing agreement on a sale of the business and urges workers to return to their jobs, the Salem News reports.
GE Healthcare announced it will establish a new life sciences headquarters in Massachusetts. Where exactly it will set up shop and how many jobs it will bring remain unclear.
Colorado officials try to figure out why taxes on marijuana sales are bringing in only a third of estimated revenues, Governing reports.
About one-quarter of the US private-sector workforce gets no paid time off, the only advanced country in the world that does not guarantee some paid vacation and one of only 13 in the world in that category.
EDUCATION
Standardized tests are coming under fire as admissions tools for colleges, with more schools going “test-optional” when it comes to the SAT and ACT exams, CommonWealth reports .
Salem school officials and the teachers union agree to terms on extending the school day at the Collins Middle School. Details of the agreement were not released, the Salem News reports.
After acting Superintendent John McDonough apparently forced the staff to reapply for their jobs, Boston’s Madison Park High School is still struggling to fill teaching positions before school starts.
HEALTH CARE
A Lynn city councilor forms a second municipal group to oppose the move by Partners HealthCare to shift Union Hospital’s focus toward psychiatric care, the Item reports.
Massachusetts hospitals reported a big jump in medical errors last year, but attribute it mostly to a broader definition used to determine medical harm.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Voters on Cape Cod and the islands will have a nonbinding question on their ballots in November asking if they think their towns should be added to the emergency plans for Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth.
The stock of Sea World falls sharply, partly in response to negative publicity from a movie questioning the park’s care of its whales, the Los Angeles Times reports.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
The Patriot Ledger runs a copy of the Braintree police log from last weekend showing apparent domestic violence entries crossed-out in black magic marker to adhere to the new state law barring the release of such information on police logs.
MEDIA
Wired profiles Edward Snowden.