Washington Post Article about death of John Greer may have other Objective

When directed to this article, I had no clear thought of why someone wanted me to read it but after doing so, a thought of why it was written appeared in my mind.  Now I am not a mind reader nor do I pretend to be but I think that there may be some truth to an article being written not to inform but to force conformity.  In other words, an article not written to educate the public but provide those who refuse to do their jobs an excuse.

The article is titled “It took 2 years for charges in Greer's death. That could be the easy part” and appears to have been written by Justin Jouvenal.  In it he reports “It took two years, the involvement of county and federal prosecutors and a special grand jury before a former Fairfax County police officer was indicted Monday on a charge of second-degree murder in the shooting of an unarmed Springfield, Va., man in 2013.  But for prosecutors, the hard work may just be beginning.  Legal experts and former prosecutors said securing a conviction against Adam D. Torres in the killing of 46-year-old John Greer may be difficult. For social and legal reasons, prosecuting a police officer presents challenges not seen in other cases. Glenn F. Ivey, a former Prince George’s County state’s attorney who has handled such cases, said the chief factors are that jurors are often sympathetic to officers and recognize the difficulty of policing and that it is often hard for prosecutors to show that the victim posed no threat.  “Officers are making split-second decisions. Sometimes jurors are reluctant to Monday-morning quarterback,” Ivey said. “Usually these are people who are viewed as public servants putting their lives on the line to protect the community.”  Ivey said overcoming those hurdles often requires strong evidence, such as video of the shooting, an unarmed victim shot in the back, or other officers testifying or indicating by their conduct at the scene that the shooting was improper.  Prosecutors are aware of the difficulties of prosecuting police officers, so they are often reluctant to press charges except in the strongest cases, experts said. Other times, as in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown last year in Ferguson, Mo., grand juries decline to indict officers.  Even when cases make it to trial, The Post analysis found that conviction rates are low and punishments are light compared with those received by other defendants. Of the 54 officers charged, 11 were convicted, 21 were not convicted and the rest of the cases were pending at the time of the April analysis. On average, officers convicted in state court faced 3 1/2 years in prison.

So what if behind all this, prosecutors now feel justified in not doing all that they can to make justice equal for all concern and therefore giving some within the law enforcement community cover to commit atrocities upon those that they were selected to serve and protect?  With this type of article coming from a respected news agency as the Washington Post, why not use it to defend all those who give the badge a bad name while dragging those who truly are most professional in the field a reason to no longer enjoy their jobs.