Cameron, a Black man and a Republican who backs Trump,
choked up during his presser. Because he knows how it feels? Even he didn't go that far. (He said he knows how his mother would feel if he were the one killed by police.) Keep in mind:
Cameron, 34, elected last year as the state's first Black attorney general, is a rising star in the Republican party and was a guest speaker at the GOP convention last month, where he declared himself a “proud Republican and supporter of President Donald J. Trump.” The president has placed the attorney general on the short list for a seat on the Supreme Court.
According to Cameron yesterday:
...."our investigation showed, and the grand jury agreed, that Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified in their return of deadly fire after having been fired upon" by Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker.
If Cameron believes that "our" investigation showed no criminal conduct, then whether he admits it or not, I think that's what the state prosecutors argued to the grand jury. Who draws up the charges? The prosecutor, not the grand jury. Their job is to vote. Of course, there have been grand juries which balked when prosecutors asked them to indict and instead return a "no true bill". But that wasn't done here, which leads me to believe that the prosecutors never presented a murder or even manslaughter option to the grand jury.
And tell me, what grand juror, without researching outside material which is not allowed, would have sufficient knowledge about the charge of "first degree criminal endangerment" let alone its elements, to decide on its own that was the sole charge for which there was probable cause to believe a crime had been committed?
Donald Trump and Joe Biden responded to last night's protests of the decision in Louisville by decrying the shooting of two officers during the aftermath of the announcement. A suspect is in custody.
Law enforcement was well aware that the grand jury's rejection of murder charges against the officers would result in protests and possible violence. Last Friday, it was announced that the federal courthouse would be closed this week, and according to the Louisville Courier, it was due to the impending decision by the state grand jury.
It is unfortunate that some vigilante (protester or not) used the protests to shoot two officers. But that should not deflect from the true message of yesterday: a young Black woman was wrongly killed by police, and based on the case presented to the grand jury, and the prosecutors' likely arguments that the officers were justified in their actions, one got a slap on the wrist and the others got off completely.
Grand jury proceedings are one-sided and conducted in secret. The only lawyers allowed in the room are prosecutors, who decide which witnesses will testify and what evidence the grand jury will hear. Prosecutors draw up the charges they want the grand jury to consider, not the charges they want the grand jury to reject, and they present their arguments.
I don't think anyone should cut Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron any slack. Prosecutors got the result they asked for and Cameron needs to own it, not feign pain.
We have all heard that "a grand jury can indict a ham sandwich." It seems to me this grand jury was only fed half a sandwich -- and prosecutors withheld the mustard to boot.