Political Will To Prosecute Bill Cosby -but Not Killer Cops?

Davey-D-brown-frameSeeing how newly elected Montgomery County, PA  district attorney Kevin Steele with political ambition and hopefully a desire for justice, has gone full throttle to bring charges on comedian Bill Cosby for a sexual assault incident that took place over 12 years ago.

The first go round back in 2005 resulted in the prosecutor at the time, Bruce L. Castor, Jr. saying no charges would be filed against Cosby. At the time there was disappointment but not much fanfare, but over the past couple of years this issue has blown up. Cosby has become a hot topic with close to 50 women accusing him of rape and sexual assault.

After anger boiled over and outrages ensued, veteran DA Castor who many thought was a relatively safe position, found himself challenged by Steele in what would go on to be a contentious election.  His lack of prosecution for Cosby’s alleged crime 12 years ago was a central campaign issue.

Kevin Steele

Kevin Steele

The end result was Steele doing the impossible and beating the incumbent Castor. In keeping his election promise, Steele with less than a day before the statute of limitations ran out, brought charges on Cosby.

Many of us watched as Cosby was brought down to the police station where he posted a million dollar bond and now he’ll be going to trial. The expectation is that Steele will pull no punches to make sure Cosby spends some time behind bars…

What’s the take away from this?  When there is a political will, there is a way

Steele, a staunch Democrat came through and smashed on long time Republican district attorney, Bruce L Castor and let us all know what is possible when folks are on a mission to seek justice.

Now the question before us is when will we see the same political will being applied to all these cases where cops have killed unarmed men, women and children?

When will we see the same vigorous prosecution and push for justice around rogue police?

When will the lack of prosecution of killer cops by a sitting DA become a central theme in an election resulting in folks who are unwilling to prosecute being ousted from office?

Tim J McGinty

Tim J McGinty

What’s the take away from all this? We now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Cleveland DA Tim J McGinty could’ve prosecuted those cops who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice

We now know that Sonoma County DA Jill Ravitch could’ve really went after killer cop Erick Gelhaus who shot and killed 13-year-old Andy Lopez back in October 2013 as he walked through a field near his house to return a toy gun.

We now know that DAs like: Bob McCulloch in St Louis, Jackie Lacey in LA,  George Gascón in San Francisco, Nancy O’Malley in Oakland, Anita Alvarez in Chicago and who knows maybe even Steele himself, can go after rogue police who kill and terrorize the people they are sworn to protect and serve.  We know the power they have. We know what they are capable of doing when they have political will.

The fact that all the aforementioned DAs are Democrats should also speak loudly to us… protecting women from a serial rapist? Two Thumbs up… Protecting a voting population that supports their party to the tune of 92-96% from killer cops?  Their record or lack thereof speaks for itself….