New York City Prosecutors Oppose State Attorney General’s Request To Investigate When Cops Kill Unarmed Civilians

Eric Schneiderman sent a let­ter Gov. Cuomo on Monday ask­ing for the stand­ing pow­er to usurp local dis­trict attor­neys, a mea­sure Schneiderman said is need­ed to address ‘the cur­rent cri­sis of con­fi­dence in our state’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem’ in the wake of the Eric Garner grand jury deci­sion not to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo over Garner’s choke­hold death.

Most of New York City’s lead pros­e­cu­tors and the heads of two of the NYPD’s largest police unions tossed shade on the state attor­ney general’s request for the pow­er to inves­ti­gate cas­es in which police kill unarmed civilians.

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sent a let­ter to Gov. Cuomo ask­ing for an imme­di­ate exec­u­tive order to take that pow­er from local dis­trict attor­neys. Schneiderman said the mea­sure was need­ed to address “the cur­rent cri­sis of con­fi­dence in our state’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem.” The request comes after a grand jury last week vot­ed not to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the July choke­hold death of Eric Garner in Staten Island. “In New York, and across the coun­try, the promise of equal jus­tice under law has been erod­ed by a series of tragedies involv­ing the death of unarmed per­sons as a result of the use of force by law enforce­ment offi­cers,” Schneiderman wrote. A Cuomo spokes­woman said the gov­er­nor, who has called for a “soup to nuts” review of the jus­tice sys­tem, is review­ing Schneiderman’s request. Mayor de Blasio called it a “mean­ing­ful pro­pos­al” that is worth look­ing into.

But the plan drew a cool response from four of the city’s five dis­trict attorneys.

Kenneth Thompson in Brooklyn and Richard Brown in Queens expressed oppo­si­tion while the Bronx’s Robert Johnson and Manhattan’s Cy Vance had seri­ous reser­va­tions. “As the duly elect­ed dis­trict attor­ney of Brooklyn, I am adamant­ly opposed to the request by the New York State Attorney General for author­i­ty to inves­ti­gate and poten­tial­ly pros­e­cute alleged acts of police bru­tal­i­ty,” Thompson said. “No one is more com­mit­ted to ensur­ing equal jus­tice under the law than I am.” The Daily News first report­ed last week that Thompson vowed to empan­el a grand jury by the end of the month to weigh pos­si­ble charges against Peter Liang, a rook­ie offi­cer who killed an unarmed man in a dark­ened hous­ing project stair­well Nov. 20. Police offi­cials said the shoot­ing of 28-year-old Akai Gurley was an acci­dent. A spokesman for Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan, who brought the Garner case before the grand jury, had no com­ment on Schneiderman’s request.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/n‑y-ag-asks-investigate-cases-cops-kill-civilians-article‑1.2037498