George Soros spent $33 million of his own hard earned money, hoping to spur civil action – yet no civil action appears to be forthcoming.
So after many months of stoking the flames of racial division, Eric Holder’s DOJ is quietly preparing a legal memo recommending that no civil rights charges be brought against the white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., who shot and killed Michael Brown.
Nevermind that the last five months of protesting was over nothing – what was the point of all this talk about imposing police reforms on police departments about then? If a grand jury and now the most radical, race-obsessed DOJ in our nation’s history, found that Officer Wilson did nothing wrong, what exactly needs to be reformed?
That would close the politically charged case in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The investigation by the F.B.I., which is complete, found no evidence to support civil rights charges against the officer, Darren Wilson, the officials said.
A broader civil rights investigation into allegations of discriminatory traffic stops and excessive force by the Ferguson Police Department remains open, however. That investigation could lead to significant changes at the department, which is overwhelmingly white despite serving a city that is mostly black.
The state authorities concluded their investigation into Mr. Brown’s death in November and similarly recommended no charges.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., has said that he plans to have it done before leaving office, probably in the next month or two if his successor is confirmed.
You realize of course, that if this uber-racialized DOJ couldn’t bring civil charges against Officer Wilson, there was never any kind of case to begin with.
Of course, it had to have been no less obvious to the talented lawyers at the Justice Department than it was to me that there is no civil-rights case on the facts of the Ferguson shooting. So why pursue it as a civil-rights matter? Because, I argued in a subsequent column, the investigation of the controversial shooting is just a pretext.
It gives the Justice Department an ostensible justification to subject the entire police department to an investigation over its “patterns and practices.” Using a Clinton-era statute that lowers its burden of proof, and the staggering DOJ budget and resources that make it prohibitively expensive for states and municipalities to contest federal investigations and lawsuits, the Justice Department extorts the police departments into signing agreements to conduct policing in an Obama-compliant manner.
So it is in Ferguson. Phase One of this two-step is complete. Darren Wilson is off the hook . . . but the Ferguson Police Department waits for the other shoe to drop – and for crime to surge.
