What’s with all of these soft ass assault charges? Before headlines were focused on an errant Subway sandwich hitting an officer’s uniform, a woman was arrested and charged with assault for actions that followed an attempt to move men accused of gang activity. Sounds fancy, right? A lot of fluff to pad what actually happened — she was recording the police and for whatever reason an officer’s hand brushed a cement wall as she was arrested for doing so. The charges were such bullshit that prosecutors weren’t able to find a grand jury to charge her with the “crime.” And they tried to do so three times.
Reuters has coverage:
Federal prosecutors failed three times to persuade a grand jury to indict a woman accused of assaulting an FBI agent during an immigration operation in Washington, D.C., last month, a highly unusual failure as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to aggressively charge street crime in the nation’s capital.
Three different federal grand juries declined to indict Sydney Reid for assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, prosecutors disclosed in a court filing late on Monday. Prosecutors then downgraded the offense to a misdemeanor.
Oof. Between these grand juries and the one that decided against paying the sandwich throwing any mind, Trump’s “tough on crime” D.C. crackdown might not be as easy to carry out as imagined. Makes you wonder how flimsy the evidence must have been. Or maybe three separate grand juries deciding not to play ball is an indication of people’s discontent about immigration operations. Don’t worry — I’m sure there will be some other person filming the police or burning an American flag that prosecutors can divert their important resources toward.
US Prosecutors Fail Three Times To Secure Indictment In FBI Assault Case [Reuters]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
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