Gov order can restore trust – AG
STATE ATTORNEY General Eric Schneiderman supports the executive order that gives him the power to prosecute police officers involved in shooting unarmed civilians, saying Sunday he believes it’s an important step in restoring trust in law enforcement.
“There has been this tremendous erosion of public confidence,” Schneiderman said Sunday on grocery mogul John Catsimatidis' AM 970 radio show. “People really feel that police are held to a different standard than others.”
Under the new executive order signed by Gov. Cuomo last week, Schneiderman’s office will supersede local prosecutors to act as a special prosecutor for these cases, a change that advocates said was necessary to ensure the proceedings were completely impartial.
“I pray we will not have business,” Schneiderman said.
Cuomo’s signing of the order was preceded by a recent stretch where police treatment of minority residents around the nation has exploded as a tense and controversial issue.
In particular, the failure of grand juries in Staten Island and Missouri to indict the officers who killed two unarmed black men, Eric Garner and Michael Brown, prompted intense outrage and demand for reform.
Schneiderman declined to criticize the efforts of any local district attorneys, saying they were all “great public servants” who eschewed more lucrative jobs in the private sector for their positions.
“No one has said that any particular district attorney engaged in any misconduct,” Schneiderman said. “This is just a matter of the public having that assurance that (the prosecutor) is a little more distanced from the local police.”
Schneiderman connected the statewide change with the new attention on criminal justice issues taking root nationwide.
“We’re in a period of time, and I think it’s a good thing, there are a lot of reforms coming into our criminal justice system,” he said.