Try it did, but the Biden Justice Department just couldn’t hoke up enough evidence to railroad the cop in Kenosha, Wisconsin, who shot sex-assault fugitive Jacob Blake as he resisted arrest last year.
The department announced on October 8 that Rusten Sheskey, whom the local district attorney cleared of wrongdoing early this year, did nothing wrong when he shot the knife-wielding criminal seven times.
The shooting triggered an insurrection in Kenosha that led to Kyle Rittenhouse’s killing of three hardened criminals in self-defense.
Just after the shooting, before any facts were in, President Joe Biden and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers pronounced Sheskey guilty of wrongdoing. So, of course, did the usual baying mob of leftist Twitter vigilantes.
No Crime
Despite local prosecutor Michael Graveley’s 87-page report that exonerated Sheskey, Biden’s legal posse tried to lynch the white cop for using excessive force. They also tried to prove he violated Blake’s “civil rights.”
“The evidence obtained is insufficient to prove” that Sheskey “willfully used excessive force,” the department said:
A team of experienced federal prosecutors from the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office reviewed evidence obtained by the FBI and state investigators to determine whether the police officer violated any federal laws….
Under the applicable federal criminal civil rights laws, prosecutors must establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that an officer “willfully” deprived an individual of a constitutional right, meaning that the officer acted with the deliberate and specific intent to do something the law forbids. This is the highest standard of intent imposed by the law. Neither accident, mistake, fear, negligence, nor bad judgment is sufficient to establish a willful federal criminal civil rights violation.
But the charges were hounds that just wouldn’t hunt. “Insufficient evidence exists to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the KPD officer willfully violated the federal criminal civil rights statutes,” DOJ continued. “Accordingly, the review of this incident has been closed without a federal prosecution.”
Waste of Time
The probe was a waste of time.
Graveley’s 87-page report clearly showed that Sheskey did nothing wrong on August 23, 2020. Cops tried to arrest Blake during a domestic disturbance. They also knew he was wanted on sex-assault warrant.
“I do not believe the State could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Officer Sheskey was not acting lawfully in self-defense or defense of others which is the legal standard the State would have to meet to obtain a criminal conviction in this case,” Graveley wrote. “I also do not believe that there are any viable criminal charges against” the other officers who were there but did not shoot.
The facts that are the most important to my determination are that officers were responding to a domestic disturbance. They were attempting to arrest Jacob Blake because he had a felony arrest warrant for domestic violence offenses and a sexual assault. Jacob Blake was armed with a knife and, after vigorously resisting the lawful arrest, he appeared to be attempting to flee in a vehicle that police had been told he did not have permission to operate and which had at least one child in the back. All of the decisions made by the officers on scene, particularly Officer Sheskey, were made based on these facts.
Made with the assistance of a former police chief who served on President Barack Obama’s police-reform panel, that assessment did not settle the matter.
Just after the shooting, and without the faintest idea of what occurred, Biden called it unjustified.
“This morning, the nation wakes up yet again with grief and outrage that yet another Black American is a victim of excessive force,” the then-Democrat presidential candidate burbled:
This calls for an immediate, full and transparent investigation and the officers must be held accountable.
These shots pierce the soul of our nation.
Actually, the shots pierced Blake, but anyway, Governor Evers said likewise. “While we do not have all of the details yet, what we know for certain is that he is not the first Black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country,” the leftist said.
No wonder the city went up in flames.
In July, Kenosha’s ruling council voted 17-0 to reject Blake’s demand for money.
1992 LA Cops
The attempt to railroad the cops on “civil rights charges” is not without precedent. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush did the same thing to the four Los Angeles cops acquitted in the beating of career criminal and drug addict Rodney King.
The City of Angels exploded in riots after the verdict, and the Bush administration charged the four cops with violating King’s civil rights. Two were convicted; two were acquitted.
After becoming the poster boy for police brutality and receiving a $3 million settlement from the city, King continued his criminal career and drowned in his swimming pool after he overdosed on drugs.
