by nowaypablo
A grand jury decision not to indict a New York policeman over a fatal chokehold underscores how difficult it is to charge an officer in the United States, even when the tactic appears to contradict police department policy and is caught on video.
The job of a grand jury is to determine whether probable cause exists that someone committed a crime, but Bennett Gershman, a former prosecutor with the Manhattan District Attorney's office, said that in his experience, the prosecutor sets the direction of a grand jury by deciding what evidence the jurors see.He added that prosecutors have incentives not to antagonize police officers and their unions, because they work with police officers daily on cases and because state prosecutors in the United States generally must stand for election.