I had the opportunity Monday night to go to a "conversation" in East Liberty where the new Pgh police chief took questions from the community. Overall it was very impressive. He stood up and took hard questions, no filters no staff in the way. He's articulate, clever, thinks on his feat. I was impressed; looking forward to see if he's effective.
He was asked about the Ferguson announcement and possible Pgh protests and the response was, he's particularly concerned about the announcement being made when the Pgh PD is already stretched very thin during the LightUpNight (this Friday Nov21)
He said LUN is an all-hands operation in Pgh and if the announcement comes out during that time, it's kind of a perfect storm alignment as far as staffing and bodies go.
Just a head's up for your Situational Awareness n'at.
vannever
2014-11-18 12:18:04
OT, but, Friday is the standard day of the week when people make important announcements that they would rather have the general public overlook.
That the chief has a sense that that may be the day the grand jury announcement will be made is despicable on the part of the grand jury.
edmonds59
2014-11-18 12:49:20
Would a grand jury -- a bunch of ordinary citizens -- really be so concerned with media coverage as to want to hide its decisions like that? I'd think their main concern would be to finish their work so they can get on with their lives. Perhaps they'd be especially motivated to finish before a weekend, but while politicians certainly schedule announcements like that to limit public discussion, I don't see how it's a plausible motivation for a grand jury.
steven
2014-11-18 13:18:39
I would not think the grand jury would care much about typical political turd polishing.
They might have a sense that if they base their decision on the evidence available to them, as is their civic duty, there might be violence. Even lives lost. An effort to avoid that violence is laudable.
mick
2014-11-18 13:46:45
I'm not sure the grand jury is necessarily involved in the announcement. IANAL "butt" it seems like the GJ makes a decision and others make the announcement.
The Ferguson school district, for instance, has asked that the announcement be made over the weekend, and if it happens on a weekday they've publicly requested that it be made after 5pm.
It's all just tea-leaves-reading until it happens. I think the Pgh police pre-thinking things, saying "this would be bad on Friday" is just the Precautionary Principle in action and probably the sort of thinking they're supposed to be doing.
I just wanted to mention for possibility for the SA of us'ns.
My own opinion is that any civic disturbance in Pgh is going to be in response to some future Pgh Police "use of force", and if it's peaceful that's a wonderful thing. fwiw
vannever
2014-11-18 14:13:34
I think it would take a miracle to for the cop to get indicted here. The autopsy (showing the bullet entered the front of Brown's hand so he couldn't have had his hands up, and could have been reaching for the gun, and the evidence that the gun went off first inside the police car, matching the officer's story, really nailed it. The police get a lot of latitude on issues like this, and there's just no hard evidence to contradict the officer.
OTOH, a motorist was charged with vehicular manslaughter in SF for
killing somebody in a crosswalk. So anything can happen.
jonawebb
2014-11-18 15:30:50
