Louisiana AG: No charges for cops who killed Alton Sterling

Alton Sterling

The last couple years have seen an uptick in the number of cops charged (or even successfully prosecuted) for the wrongful shooting of Black people, but it’s important to remember that those cases are still a minority. Case in point: The Louisiana Attorney General has decided that family of Alton Sterling will see no such justice.

More than 20 months after the fatal police shooting of a black man outside a Baton Rouge mini-mart touched off protests nationwide over police treatment of African Americans, the Louisiana attorney general said Tuesday that he would not charge two white officers in the death.

The decision from Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry's office brought strong condemnation from Alton Sterling's family and civil rights activists, and closed the possibility of criminal charges in one of the most prominent police shootings in recent years.

Landry's announcement came close to 11 months after the U.S. Department of Justice similarly ruled out federal charges against the officers, Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II.

Meanwhile, Sacramento police killed unarmed Black man Stephon Clark in his own backyard after mistaking his cellphone for a weapon, whilst a Houston deputy gunned down unarmed Black man Danny Ray Thomas in only 17 seconds. And those are just the reports I’ve heard of over the last week.

It doesn’t matter how many badge-wearing thugs get hauled into a courtroom; the number of Black lives needlessly lost will always far outpace the prosecutions of their killers.

(via @SinKirabo, retweeted by @pzmyers; Danny Ray Thomas link via @FairPunishment, retweeted by @radleybalko)