Black advocacy group chair: Probe sheriffffffffffff, state attorney
A longtime rights advocate and former West Palm Beach city commissioner is calling on the federal government to investigate the Palm Beach County Sheriffff ’s Offiffice and State Attorney’s Offiffice.
Robbie Littles, now chairman of the black advocacy group Bridge Builders, said the state attorney’s offiffice has not done enough to keep offifficers accountable when people are shot and killed, citing the 97 percent clearance rate uncovered in a Palm Beach Post investigation.
Littles, who served as a West Palm Beach city commissioner from 1991 to 1993 and most recently as a risk manager for Riviera Beach, said he’s specififically irked that State Attorney Dave Aronberg personally worked a case on a badly malnourished dog last week rather than work more on police shootings.
“When the hell does he step up to the plate when a human being, a black male, gets shot and killed?” Littles said Monday outside the state attorney’s offiffice in downtown West Palm Beach.
Traditionally, the U.S. Department of Justice has rarely gotten involved with investigations into specifific agencies.
If the federal government doesn’t investigate the agencies, Littles said it could be time to protest in the street.
“Unless the feds come in and take a look not only at the sheriffff ’s offiffice but at the state attorney’s offiffice and their lack of performance — not their performance, their lack of performance — then maybe the only option is what you’ve seen in Ferguson and Baltimore because it seems that historically the only time anything signifificantly positive happens for black folks in America is when black folks raise hell in the streets,” Littles said.
“Now, that’s unfortunate,” he said, “but that’s the reality.”