Is This What We Can Expect From A Zimmerman Acquital?

Posted by Jack

A Houston officer was just acquitted by a jury on charges that he unlawfully beat a young black burglary suspect. However, that didn’t seem to have any influence on Chief McClellan (shown on left) who wanted all four of the involved officers convicted. Nor on the black protestors that are still angry over the Trayvon Martin case. Nor on the Black Panthers. Nor on the liberal Mayor.

Police Chief Charles McClelland Jr. said the actions of fired officer Andrew Blomberg were “contrary to department policy, training and state law.” Hmmm…okay, but this does seems strange in light of the jury verdict, but since I don’t know what the jury heard I have no opinion on the beating allegation, I’m just saying it seems odd.

Now here’s the news story:

HOUSTON – Andrew Blomberg, 29, was the first of four fired police officers to stand trial for their roles in the alleged beating of Chad Holley during a daylight arrest on March 2010. The incident involving the black teen, now 18, prompted fierce public criticism of the Police Department by community activists who called it another example of police brutality against minorities.

The jury had deliberated for less than a day.

“The jury sent a message that the life of a black man don’t mean a damn thing in Houston,” African-American community activist Quanell X told the Los Angeles Times. “I believe the prosecutor never truly intended to convict this cop. I believe that allowing an all-white jury to be impaneled in this case was absolutely wrong and a miscarriage of justice.”

“It is pathetic. It is unacceptable,” the Rev. James Dixon of the Community of Faith Church said of the jury’s decision. “This kind of expression says to me, to my children and to every black child in the city, `Your life is not worth manure.'”

Houston is the country’s fourth-largest city and among the most diverse, with an African-American chief of police. But Quanell X, a Los Angeles native and leader of the local New Black Panther Party, noted that the jury in this case was chosen from surrounding conservative Harris County, represented by a white, Republican district attorney who began her career as a Houston police officer.

He also noted that the prosecutor in the case, Clint Greenwood, failed to convict another white police officer last year in the shooting of 23-year-old African-American waiter Robert Tolan, son of a former Major League Baseball player shot in the driveway of his home in Houston’s affluent Bellaire neighborhood in 2010.

“Black people must rise up and send a message to white people in this city and this town that our lives and the lives of our children do matter,” Quanell X told the Times. “We’re at a boiling point where America is headed toward some real civil conflict because of cases like Trayvon Martin and Robbie Tolan and Chad Holley. Black people are sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

Protesters carrying signs with slogans like, “No justice, no peace. Stop the racist police,” and “Justice for Trayvon Martin” circled in front of the Harris County Courthouse and a phalanx of media cameras.

Blomberg denied that his actions during the arrest were racially motivated. To those who insist Holley was treated a certain way because of his race, Blomberg said, “They weren’t out there that day.”

His attorney, Dick DeGuerin, also said “it is not and was not a racial thing.”

“It’s been made into that by others for their own reasons,” he said.

Asked why there weren’t any blacks or minorities on the jury, DeGuerin said most of the African-Americans in the jury pool had already made up their minds that Blomberg was guilty.

Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos said while she respectfully disagreed with the jury’s decision, she also accepted it.

“Our prosecutors conducted themselves with professionalism and dedication to the pursuit of justice. We are prepared to go to trial on the remaining three cases,” she said in a statement.

The other officers also are charged with official oppression. Two of them face another misdemeanor as well: violating the civil rights of a prisoner. Their trial dates have not been set.

“They will never again be Houston police officers whatever the verdict is in the criminal trial,” said Houston Mayor Annise Parker, (inserted for clarity – one of America’s most liberal democrat mayors) who disagreed with the verdict.

Blomberg’s acquittal came amid heightened tension after the fatal shooting of black Florida teen Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman earlier this year. (End)

PS I suppose you can say this case was completely avoidable, if only the officers had stayed in their cars!