Brown Family Attorney Benjamin Crump: ‘The Process Should Be Indicted’
“But this morning, after we like all of you, went through as much of the information I think it was described as a data dump — we went through as much of it as we could, and saw how completely unfair this process was. We object publicly and loudly as we can on behalf of Michael Brown Jr.’s family that this process is broken.
The process should be indicted. They should be indicted because of the continuous systematic results that is yielded by this process. And let’s be very honest, let’s be very honest about this process. We have the local prosecutor who has a symbiotic relationship with the local police and the local police officers who sit in judgment whether to indict the police when they brutalize or kill a young person from our community.
And normally that prosecutor has no relationship or no regards for the young person of color. So as attorney Graham, attorney Parks predicted at the beginning, we could foresee what the outcome was going to be. And that’s exactly what occurred last night. But it is awfully troubling when you look at what was released and you hear about the police officer who shot Michael Brown junior in broad daylight, the unarmed teenager and you hear he testified for four hours. And you had to scratch your head kind of like we all did to say when is the prosecutor going to cross examine the killer of an unarmed person? A first year law student would have did a better job of cross examining a killer of an unarmed person than the prosecutor’s office did. I mean, where was his atrocity ever challenged? Where was his credibility challenged?
When you watch those four hours that he got to give a speech to the grand jury. He told [indecipherable] he told them he got hit ten times violently. He told the grand jury he only got hit two times. You all heard it. But he say it and you all heard it, Hulk Hogan against a 5-year-old. Nobody questions officer, you are 6’4,” you weigh 226 pounds. Michael brown is 6’6,” he weighs 292 pounds. You mean to tell me that he hit you with such force that you were describing that it was going to knock you unconscious? Nobody held up the pictures to say but that’s not consistent with the physical evidence.
Reverend Al, we object to this process because all across America, whether it’s in New York, Los Angeles, California, Cleveland, young people of color are being killed by police officers and the local prosecutors put together this very unbiased grand jury and it continues to yield the same results. Now, I have been told {Mr. Mario} that if you continue to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result then that is the definition for insanity. And we say to the prosecutor, we are not insane! We know that our children deserve equal justice. Just as any American and we want the prosecutors if they have a conflict of interest and for the sake of the public trust, which is so critical to Ferguson and many communities all over America, president [Bronx], we pray that prosecutors will say we want people to believe in the system.
And if that means appointing a special prosecutor who has no relationship with the accused officers that do you so. The legacy of Michael Brown Jr. should be one not where we just make a lot of noise, Mr. Brown. That wouldn’t be the proper legacy to your son. The legacy to Michael Brown Junior should be that instead of just striving to make a lot of noise, we strive to make a difference.
And that difference will be changing this system where the police who are supposed to protect and serve us continue to kill our members in our community and we have to really address this issue as one that — what scenario can we offer where they finally indict police officers for killing us? [indecipherable]”
