Black
people have historically equated prosecutors
with locking people up,and rightfully so.
Prosecutors, district attorneys and circuit
attorneys have almost single-handedly
contributed to the swell of two million
mainly Black people caged in America’s
prisons. The
handprints of the courts are all over the
widening racial disparities of the carceral
system.
A
2014 report revealed that of the elected
prosecutors, 95 percent were white and
nearly 80 percent were white men. The
predominantly white, male, conservative top
law enforcers play a powerful role in
criminal justice with unapologetic and
unwavering
support for and from police groups. This is
an under-estimated factthat has come back to
bite us in the butt.
In
a post-Ferguson world, Black communities
across the country were fedup with corrupt
and unjust prosecutors. The paradigm about
prosecutors and their roles started to
shift. Prosecutors with reform agendas were
being elected, changing the color and
political
landscape of these offices.
St.
Louis elected its reform prosecutor in 2016.
Attorney Kim Gardner wasthe first African
American to hold the office. And just to let
the
white power structure know it wasn’t a
fluke, she was re-elected in 2020. From the
moment she took office, Gardner has caught
hell. Attempts to teach her lessons on how
to stay in her place as aBlack woman have
failed.
The
latest attack on her office recently ended
with a minor reprimand bythe Missouri
Supreme Court and a $750 court fee. At the
heart of the
four-year ethics violation case was that
Gardner’s personalwritten notes not be
disclosed when the Circuit Attorney’s
Office (CAO) took on then-Missouri
Republican Governor Eric Greitens in a
privacy invasion crime involving his
mistress.
After
thousands of hours, the review of voluminous
pages of legal documents turned up no
intentional criminal acts. Taxpayers will be
handed an
invoice for at least $1 million for lawyers,
depositions,investigator and experts.
Gardner’s personal defense was about
the same amount, but those costs will be
absorbed by the pro bono lawfirm. Gardner’s
reputation took some nasty blows, but her
public service commitment is unshakable, and
her law license remains intact.
Why
are
Kim Gardner and her fellow colleagues so
hated and a recipient of non-stop hate mail
and death threats? From the inception,
Gardner
made it clear that she was not interested in
maintaining the status quo. Further, that no one
was above law - implicitly referring to
rogue cops.
Coming
out of the gate as the new prosecutor, the
Circuit Attorney took onthe case of killer
cop Jason Stockley. The coward chose a bench
trial
and was summarily acquitted of the murder
Anthony Lamar Smith by awhite judge. Weeks
of protests filled the streets of St. Louis.
Gardner’s
legal action against Greitens ended his
political career, resultingin political
retaliation by his circle of powerful
Republican
buddies. She brought charges against the gun
swinging McCloskeys. The white husband and
wife attorneys brandished weapons at
non-violent
protestors as they passed their mansion on a
gated street.
Kim
Gardner has a growing “exclusion list” of
crooking cops who are banned from bringing
criminal charges to her office. These
cops have proven track records of planting
or destroying evidence,filing false police
reports and a host of other wicked tricks
that
often lead to innocent defendants going to
jail.
The
popular prosecutor was forced to file a
lawsuit against the city, St.Louis Police
Officers Association (SLPOA) and others
using the
little-known Ku Klux Klan Act. The 1871 law
was intended to stop theviolent attacks by
the KKK as Black folks fought for their
civil and
human rights.
Despite
being villainized by police associations
aided by the mainstream media, reform
prosecutors have prodded forward. Most have
brazenly
refused to prosecute the laws from the GOP
agenda from marijuana possession to abortion
bans to voting restrictions. They are
working
their strategy to reduce crime,
incarceration and recidivism. Theyhave set
up wrongful conviction units, drug courts
and diversion
programs.
Shortly
after the news of the court ruling, Gardner
filed a motion to vacatethe wrongful
conviction of Lamar Johnson, incarcerated
for thirty
years. There are others waiting in the queue
for their freedom basedupon the collusion of
corrupt cops and previous prosecutors.
A
new law driven by the community gives the
CAO expanded powers and additional funding
for the office. The office will have the
staff and
the authority to investigate police-involved
shootings. There are now resources for
families who have lost loved ones to police
shootings.
This
will not be the last time that Gardner is
forced to step into thering to defend her
title. In other cities, the community
support for
prosecutors is not as organized as it needs
to be when it comes totaking on these
formidable enemies. A few reformists have
lost their
re-elections - a reminder that staying
connected to the communitiesone serves and
having an objective, political analysis is
critical.
Black
and Brown communities want transformative
changes in prosecutors’ offices. They want
an end to the structural racism that
inherently
seeks convictions at any costs. They want to
see a reduction in crime in their
neighborhoods, but they want the right
person to be
convicted and a fair sentence given out.
Our
communities have a lot of wants and needs in
this arena. This callsfor highly organized
efforts that consistently educate and engage
them to be doggedly strategic in the
long-term goals to defund policeand to
abolish the current criminal justice system.
