The Fulton County district attorney gets ahead of himself and causes an Atlanta Police Department walkout

In a USA Today op-ed, former federal prosecutor Michale J. Stern makes clear that Paul Howard was playing fast and loose with the procedure he was supposed to follow:

Atlanta's district attorney, Paul Howard, announced felony murder charges Wednesday against the officer who shot Brooks.

American Bar Association rules prohibit prosecutors from making pretrial statements that could influence public perception and prejudice an accused's ability to get a fair trial. Howard violated this rule by making a lengthy presentation of evidence that supported his position and ignored key facts that did not. Judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys typically refer to Howard's impropriety as trying the case in the press.

A new and disturbing allegation presented by the district attorney is that the officer kicked Brooks after he was shot. Though acts after an event can be considered reflective of an earlier intent, the pivotal actions in this case will focus on what happened in the seconds before the shooting.

In Georgia, an officer is entitled to use deadly force when he reasonably believes his life is in danger or he’s at risk of receiving a serious physical injury. When this case goes to trial, the jurors will be instructed that they must consider the context of Brooks attacking the officer, grabbing the Taser and shooting the Taser at the officer. This analysis includes the possibility that if Brooks hit the officer with the stolen Taser, he could grab the officer’s gun and shoot him.

Howard's claim that Brooks never presented himself as a threat just ain't so. He had turned to face Rolfe and fired the taser at him. A freeze frame from the surveillance video makes that clear. 

When one watches the entire video, one can see that the exchange between Rolfe and Brooks was characterized by a vibe of mutual respect. Rolfe explained repeatedly that his first concern was whether Brooks was safe to drive a car. Even after Brooks had lied about not having driven the car and had made it clear he didn't know what city he was in, Rolfe made every effort to give Brooks a chance to minimize the trouble he'd be getting into.

Brooks's sudden burst of resistance at the moment of handcuffing was an abrupt shift in the tone that had been established. When one knows a little backstory, it seems reasonable to consider the possibility that, even if he were not going to get in a great deal of trouble over this specific incident, Brooks realized that a DUI arrest would squelch his probation and send him back to prison on the four charges, including child cruelty and family battery, he'd been convicted of in 2014.

Atlanta cops were not pleased with the way Howard handled this, and expressed as much by calling in sick in large numbers just before shift change last night. 

This exacerbates a trend that was already underway before the Brooks incident. A week ago yesterday, a piece by a Tulsa, Oklahoma police commander named Travis Yates entitled "You Won't Need To Abolish Us - Why Many Police Officers Like Me Are Quitting The Force" was published and quickly became widely disseminated. On June 4, dozens of Louisville police walked out on that city's mayor as he addressed them during roll call before a shift.

The gossamer thread by which our civilization hangs is perilously frayed. With every disingenuous characterization of what goes down when a cop tries to do his job professionally and respectfully, it frays a little more.