St. Louis Prosecutor Bob McCulloch

St. Louis Prosecutor Bob McCulloch

Sixty-six percent of states that elect prosecutors have no blacks in those offices, a new study has found, highlighting the lack of diversity in the ranks of those entrusted to bring criminal charges and negotiate prison sentences. About 95 percent of the 2,437 elected state and local prosecutors across the country in 2014 were white, and 79 percent were white men, according to the study, which was to be released on Tuesday by the San-Francisco-based Women Donors Network. By comparison, white men make up 31 percent of the population of the United States.

An astounding new study released on Tuesday morning by the San Francisco based Women's Donor Network has completely blown the lid off the complete lack of diversity of America's elected prosecutors.After what has perhaps been the most tumultuous year in the history of our country on the issue of police brutality and violence, it's increasingly obvious that few reforms will actually take hold if local prosecutors don't have a serious inclination to see them happen. Even though we've all heard that prosecutors could "indict a ham sandwich," our lived reality of prosecutors going after violent police officers has taught us that police are not ham sandwiches. A study from the Washington Post and Bowling Green State University found that fewer than one percent of police ever serve a day in jail for even the most horrendous acts of violence imaginable

What we've learned is that it's not a matter of evidence, and it's certainly not a matter of public demand, but it all comes down to whether or not a prosecutor truly wants to see an indictment. In spite of a clear video of Eric Garner being choked to death by NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo, the case never went to trial. In spite of a horrific video of an unarmed Dillon Taylor being shot and killed by police in Utah, the case never even went to trial. In spite of clear evidence that Ezell Ford was shot in the back by the LAPD and a police review that determined his murder violated half a dozen policies, the prosecutor didn't call for a trial.

This list could go on and on and on and literally have tens of thousands of stories of people killed by police in which prosecutors basically refused to indict the officers regardless of how egregious the story.

And what we know about this is that race, not just the color of someone's skin, per se, but also the culture behind it, matters. White Americans and African Americans experience and view police brutality in wildly different fashions. That's why it is extremely troubling that 95 percent of elected prosecutors are white. Fifteen states, including states with sizable African American populations, don't have a single black prosecutor and some of the few that do, like Kentucky and Missouri, have just one African American.

Continued below the fold.

