Noticed that investigation involving the two Baton Rouge police officers shooting the suspect while he was lying on the ground has already been taken over by the DOJ and the FBI.
Why are the DOJ and the FBI so quick to jump into local matters like this. Have there been multiple cases where the local/state authorities botched such cases with such blatant video evidence, that the Feds are necessary to “get it right”, or is this political grandstanding?
The Governor of Louisiana asked the federal government to investigate the incident.
There is a history of corruption in that state. Sounds like a good idea for the feds to handle it to me!
And so far as that goes, why would anyone be concerned about the feds taking the case instead of locals? Trying to hide something?
The state and local officials will doubtless conduct their own investigations. It’s not a matter of the DOJ’s investigation superceding the others and in fact the FBI’s investigation will likely be more limited in scope than the local investigation as they’re only investigating if the officers or the department violated the person’s civil rights.
One likely reason the governor asked for an outside investigation is to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest. Baton Rouge isn’t all that big a place; most of the local law enforcement officers probably know each other. Since it’s also the state capital, there’s a fair chance that the state investigators headquartered there would also know (or at least know of) the officers involved. Friends investigating friends, or even just acquaintances investigating acquaintances, tends to carry the perception of favoritism. In a politically-charged situation (and white officers shooting a black suspect is ALWAYS politically-charged in America today), even the perception that the investigation wasn’t unbiased is bad politics.
The local force and the state police will be investigating, too, so it’s not an either/or. However, an uninvolved and presumably independent third-party (such as the feds), presumably reaching consistent conclusions, can lend credibility to those state/local efforts.
In addition, you know that the Feds are going to investigate anyways for violation of civil rights.
When Michael Brown was shot to death by a police officer in Ferguson, MO, the Ferguson police immediately handed over the investigation to the St. Louis County police. The investigation was then taken up by the St. Louis County prosecutor (the Missouri version of a state’s attorney) who brought it to a grand jury, which conducted its own investigation for three months. At the same time the DOJ was conducting a separate investigation.
The situation was similar whenFreddie Gray died in Baltimore. The Baltimore police conducted their own investigation, the state’s attorney brought the case to a grand jury, and the DOJ conducted a separate investigation.