D.C.'s top prosecutor told Muriel Bowser that police didn't have probable cause for mass arrests, and that "guilt by association" doesn't warrant felony charges.
WASHINGTON ― Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department is calling out D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser ― who had a massive “Black Lives Matter” mural painted on a street near the White House that she renamed to honor the movement for Black lives ― for blowing off the constitutional rights of anti-racist protesters in her own city.
In the nation’s capital, the U.S. Attorney’s Office ― currently headed by a Trump administration official Barr appointed ― prosecutes both federal and serious local crimes. Prosecutors in the office evaluated MPD’s arrest reports and determined that nearly every one lacked probable cause. The office essentially determined that the rioting arrests, based on the information presented by MPD, were not justified.
So instead of quietly fading away, Bowser’s letter set off a new round of media coverage and allowed Sherwin to criticize Bowser ― quite credibly ― of brushing aside the protections guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution because she wanted to see “rioters” locked up. Bowser’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Sherwin said the pattern repeated itself when MPD arrested 19 people for rioting over the weekend, but officers “failed to provide the bare minimum of articulable facts linking the charged persons with alleged individual criminal conduct.” Due to MPD’s lack of evidence, just one individual was charged.
The government took an extremely aggressive posture in the “J20” cases, pursuing felony rioting conspiracy charges against defendants who they never alleged actually destroyed any property or committed any acts of violence. Qureshi said it was important to note that Bowser’s office “pushed hard” for prosecutions after J20, and that politicians like her were no longer supportive when the case became a political liability for them. Now Bowser’s political rhetoric is impacting another case, only this time her actions are backfiring on the MPD.
Kropf said there’s “no question” that Sherwin’s concerns about MPD’s lack of probable cause were rooted in the legal issues that came up during the J20 trial. She finds the politics of the dispute fascinating. Even in Democratic D.C., Kroft said, jurors would be willing to convict defendants if the government proved they engaged in property damage and violence.
Yet despite their extensive protest experience and the outcome of the J20 cases, MPD has occasionally continued to kettle protesters. In the early days of the Floyd protests, a man living near D.C.’s historic U Street became a local folk hero after he allowed protesters into his home to protect them from the police officers who kettled them on his street.
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