Posted on August 21, 2014

Police Union: ‘Justice Needs to Go Both Ways’

Susan Jones, CNS News, August 20, 2014

Sergeant Kevin Ahlbrand, president of the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police, says the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown has been vilified in the press and by politicians before the facts are known.

“Justice needs to go both ways,” Ahlbrand told Fox News’s Megyn Kelly Tuesday night.

“We routinely don’t comment on these cases until the facts are in. But we thought it was very necessary that we say, hey, we’re open for a very thorough investigation, but we’re very concerned about the due process rights of Darren.”

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“You know, when a police officer has to take a life, that is the worst possible thing he can do in his job,” Ahlbrand said. “It’s a very traumatic experience, and now he’s facing death threats from people, his family is facing death threats, and nobody is standing up for Darren and we have to stand up for him.”

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Ahlbrand said he doesn’t know if Wilson will testify before the grand jury. But he doesn’t think the grand jury will indict him: “My personal belief is that they will not return an indictment, based on the facts that I know right now.”

Missouri State Senator Jamilah Nasheed is demanding that St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch step aside and let a special prosecutor handle the case.

She has warned that failure to indict Wilson will make the Ferguson rioting up to this point “seem like a picnic compared to the havoc that will likely occur, because the black community will never accept that there was an impartial investigation from (McCulloch’s) office.”

In a statement Tuesday night, Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, urged a “vigorous prosecution” to “achieve justice in the shooting death of Michael Brown.” But Nixon also refused to remove the “democratically elected” St. Louis County prosecutor.

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