Facts from the Front – May 2016

by Moe White –

Vote on June 7

It’s time to vote … again. Since North Carolina’s Congressional districts were thrown out by the federal court just before the March 15 primary, the state redrew those districts and added a second primary on June 7. But the far more crucial vote in that primary is for state judges, including a Supreme Court justice; there, the legislature tried to pull a fast one by anointing their appointed chief justice (Edmunds) with a “retention election.”

That, however, was found to be contrary to the NC Constitution, so now several candidates are running for that crucial post—which used to be held by Patricia Timmons-Goodson (see “Local NAACP News”). Don’t neglect to vote—for a progressive, justice-minded judge (I favor Judge Michael Morgan, an African American with a proven track record, or Sabra Faires, an independent who brought the suit that found “retention elections” unconstitutional).

Also, each of the four incumbent judges on the North Carolina Court of Appeals who are up for re-election will face an opponent. My choices for the four seats are Vince Rozier, Jr.; Abe Jones; Linda Stephens; and Rickye McKoy-Mitchell.

Burying evidence

In numerous cases nationwide in recent years, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges, and politicians have denied the evidence of eyewitnesses (and their phone-cams) in cases of police-on-civilian violence—beating, strangling, shooting and killing citizens, most often African Americans. Now our General Assembly has come up with a way to perpetually hide any wrongdoings by law enforcement in the state.

In many of those cases, bodycams and dashcams from the police themselves have shown officials’ denials to be lies. Not only have the officials been proven to be involved in covering up law enforcement crimes, but in some cases—a few—the new video evidence has led to prosecutions of those offending officers.

What’s the solution? On J Street in Raleigh, it’s to introduce HB 972 (Body-Worn & Dashboard Cameras/No Public Record), a bill mandating that body-worn camera and dashboard camera recordings are not public records. That is, nobody would have the right to review those recordings other than law enforcement itself. No press, no media, no defense attorneys, no victims or victim advocates … they’re not public records, so as far as the government is concerned, they don’t exist.

(The bill also “establishes procedures for best-practice training and use,” a rather useless provision if the public can never see how the cameras have been used.)

Burying justice

While the First Amendment guarantees each of us the right to free speech, and guarantees the nation the right to a free press, state law allows investigators to maintain absolute control over evidence that is used in investigations but not in prosecutions. That is, if a prosecutor wants to use evidence against a defendant, it has to be made public; but if not, the DA or the SBI or other government entity can simply bury it.

The problem is that such exculpatory evidence, as we’ve seen numerous times, is often the only evidence that can clear an innocent defendant or convict a guilty police officer. Burying the evidence of those cameras is a deliberate attempt to bury justice in North Carolina.

The bill is being cosponsored by Rep. Chris Whitmire (R), Henderson/Polk/Transylvania Counties.

Facts From The Front is a monthly column by copy editor Moe White in which America’s Constitutional democracy is defended against ongoing assaults by those who prefer less palatable alternatives: oligarchy, autocracy, theocracy, feudalism, fascism, and other nondemocratic methods of government. Among the qualifications for White’s commentary and ridicule are hypocrisy, dishonesty, corruption, unbridled greed, flat-out lies, and sheer idiocy on the part of public figures.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in “Facts from the Front” are those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Urban News.