After High-Profile Shootings, Blacks Seek Prosecutor Seats...

[stringer bell]

And they are drawing on personal experience for lessons on how to be tough on crime without being needlessly harsh.

Ms. Ayala, in Florida, said her husband had once been caught up in the juvenile justice system, and later served seven years in prison on drug charges. He now works for a nonprofit. “You have to distinguish between a child who is misguided and frustrated from home issues, and a child who is dangerous,” she said.

The thin ranks of black elected prosecutors do include some high-profile figures. Since the Ferguson protests, R. Seth Williams, the Philadelphia district attorney, has held informal talks with a small group of African-American peers on the best ways to respond to police killings. And it was Marilyn Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore, who led the investigation into the case of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died after riding unsecured in a police transport wagon.

Six officers were charged with crimes; the first trial ended in a hung jury, and three officers were acquitted. Ms. Mosby dropped the remaining charges.

But she is unapologetic. Had the case been handled differently, “there would have been no accountability,” she said in an interview. “You have to have a seat at the table, and you have to be the change you want to see.”

A small group of advocates are leading the charge. The National Bar Association has urged black line prosecutors to run for office; the National Black Prosecutors Association is offering to mentor candidates; and Mr. Soros, through Color of Change and his growing network of Safety and Justice PACs, has funneled nearly $5 million into the cause since last year.

Outside Atlanta, Mr. Soros spent $147,000 helping a DeKalb County line prosecutor, Darius Pattillo, seek the district attorney’s post in neighboring Henry County; his general-election opponent recently quit the race.

Not all the campaigns have ended so well for Mr. Soros: Robert Shuler Smith, a black district attorney whom he helped win re-election in Hinds County, Miss., has since been indicted on charges of conspiring to aid a criminal defendant.

And in Houston, Mr. Soros’s first choice, Morris Overstreet — a former judge who was the first African-American elected to a statewide office in Texas since Reconstruction — was defeated in the Democratic primary by a white woman, Kim Ogg. Mr. Soros has now spent $500,000 to aid her against the Republican incumbent, Devon Anderson.

Mr. Soros, who declined to be interviewed, has also supported Hispanics seeking prosecutors’ posts in Arizona and New Mexico, a spokesman said.

“Race does not explicitly play a role, but in seeking candidates who understand the injustices of the current system, many of them turn out to be African-American or Latino, because it is people of color who have been disproportionately affected by those injustices,” the spokesman, Michael Vachon, said in an email.

Mr. Crump said he wants to focus attention next on elected prosecutors in Staten Island, Minneapolis, and Baton Rouge, places that have each seen high-profile killings of black men.

But first, Brooklyn voters next year will elect a successor to Ken Thompson, the borough’s first black district attorney, who died of cancer last month before finishing his first term.

In what was apparently his last interview, Mr. Thompson made clear that electing black prosecutors would not just mean charging police officers who might not have been charged before, or declining to seek prison time for blacks who might have been dealt with more harshly in the past.

He pointed to his decisions to stop prosecuting most low-level marijuana cases, create a program aimed at helping people clear warrants for low-level offenses, and devote resources to reversing wrongful convictions. Electing more black district attorneys, he said, might give blacks and the poor a fairer shake.

“We should first determine if those who enter the criminal justice system belong in the criminal justice system — not just sort of process them on,” he said.

“There are a lot of lock-’em-up, keep-’em-moving D.A.s,” he added. “I’m not one of those guys.”

 

[Guy Gardner]

So they can commit career suicide and have death threats made against their family like Marilyn Mosby every time they try to hold cops accountable?

 

[rickmogul]

Now this is action! Vote the hunkies out! The Awakening has begun and is moving. Keep it up and watch they change some laws and shit to hate on it out of fear. All races need 2 bumrush them seats!

 

[atribecalledgabi]

So they can commit career suicide and have death threats made against their family like Marilyn Mosby every time they try to hold cops accountable?

Better than hoping for something different. Be the change you wana see

 

[rapmusic]

So they can commit career suicide and have death threats made against their family like Marilyn Mosby every time they try to hold cops accountable?

Sad to say but I have to agree with this. You can have a city full of black faces but as long as brothas keep getting shot, the black people's feet will be held to the fire. So sad to see what that woman is going through smh.

 

[jono]

Its about time people started thinking. That's where the authority is.

 

[SuperSoaker]

I remember in undergrad we were watching this video of a Harvard (if I remember correctly) professor who was trying to push the idea that if a miniority ever serves on a jury, they should always vote no guilty no matter the circumstances if the case involved a minority being charged with a non-violent drug offense. It was the dopest shit, and would be cool if it really was some nationwide pact. This story reminded of that, I wish I remembered the professors name.

 

[Maximus Rex]

This was a good idea until read George Soros.was involved. Getting black officials elected needs to be some "FUBU," shit. For Us By Us. The moment you accept white people's money, white people control the narrative, you defer to white peoe and act as their surrogates. Black people aren't in the position to take money and support from CACs. Look at BLM, they took money from George Soros now they're talm 'bout a gang of shit that doesn't have to do with black people like support for illegal aliens, support for feminist bullshit, support for the Palestinians, a d support for fag/dyke issues

 

[Maximus Rex]

So they can commit career suicide and have death threats made against their family like Marilyn Mosby every time they try to hold cops accountable?

Sad to say but I have to agree with this. You can have a city full of black faces but as long as brothas keep getting shot, the black people's feet will be held to the fire. So sad to see what that woman is going through smh.

That's on us as a people that we allow these Neo Gestopo Pigs to do this. Pigs should been killed for they're fuckery in Baltimore. This is why politicians don't really fuck with us like that it's because in the rare instance that they look out for us, when shit hits we don't have their backs.