Miscarriage of justice for Alton Sterling

Alton Sterling Mar 27 2018

Yet another miscarriage of justice in the July 5th, 2016 fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alton Sterling. He was first stun gunned & then shot several times at close range while being held down by two Baton Rouge, Louisiana police officers. In May 2017, the US Department of Justice chose not to file criminal charges against the officers for excessive force & misuse of authority. Today the Louisiana attorney general announced the state will not file charges because the officers acted in a “reasonable & justifiable manner.” There are several cellphone videos of the violent encounter documenting violations of police procedure & excessive force. The state refuses to release most of those videos.

Apparently Sterling has a criminal record from a similar encounter with police in 2009. That may be so but the Department of Justice & Louisiana attorney general were not asked to adjudicate that case for which he was tried & served a few years in jail. They were asked to judge the 2016 fatal shooting of a man pinned to the ground. As the Sterling family attorney said in 2016, “You can judge a man by his past, or in this case you can judge him by what we saw in the videotape. All that matters is that videotape.”

The devastated family say they have no more tears left to cry but they have plenty of fight left & have initiated civil litigation against the officers & hopefully city & state officials.

Photo is Alton Sterling. May he Rest In Peace. Sincere condolences to his family & friends.

#BlackLivesMatter