美国国家公共电台 NPR Fact Check: Are Prosecutors Too Quick To Let The Police Off?

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

In Louisiana, the next move belongs to state prosecutors². They decide whether to file charges in a high-profile police shooting. Federal prosecutors say they will not act against two police officers who shot Alton Sterling³. The shooting came last year amid heightened attention toward many police shootings, and NPR's Martin Kaste has been asking if that attention over the last few years has made police any more likely to be prosecuted⁴.

MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE⁵: Phil Stinson is a former cop who now studies cops. He's an associate professor at Bowling⁶ Green State University where he does something that the government doesn't. He counts the number of times that police officers face criminal charges, state or federal. And sure enough, he says that number jumped in the year right after Ferguson.

PHIL STINSON: In 2015, there were 18 police officers across the country charged with murder or manslaughter resulting from an on-duty shooting where the officer shot and killed someone - 18. And that was the highest we've seen as long as I've been tracking this the last 13 years.

KASTE: But did that increase represent a real change in the way prosecutors look at police shooting cases? Stinson doesn't think so. For one thing, he says the next year, 2016, that number dropped again.

STINSON: Well, if anything, it was regression to the mean. I think we're going back to right what we've seen year to year over the last decade or so. It's just a rare event that an officer gets charged.

KASTE: These numbers are very small, so statistically⁷ speaking, the variations don't mean that much. But Stinson says it is important to look at the bigger picture, the fact that American police kill about 1,000 people a year and only about 1 percent of those deaths result in criminal charges. Jim Pasco, with the National Fraternal Order of Police says, there's no reason to frame that low percentage as a bad thing.

JIM PASCO: He can't discard the possibility, however much it may disappoint him, that the reason there are only 18 prosecutions⁹ is that there were only grounds for prosecution⁸ of 18 cases.

KASTE: That said, Pasco agrees that post-Ferguson activism has not led to a big increase in prosecutions of police.

PASCO: The scrutiny¹⁰ by media and the ubiquity of social media certainly have added to the drumbeat of criticism of police officers. But generally speaking, I don't believe that's translated into a higher number of prosecutions because at the end of the day, prosecutors need provable cases.

KASTE: And that seems to be why the Justice Department refrained from filing charges in Baton¹¹ Rouge¹². In order to make a federal case, acting¹³ U.S. Attorney Corey Amundson would have had to have shown that the police willfully deprived Alton Sterling of his civil rights - in other words, that they'd meant to kill him.

COREY AMUNDSON: Based on the evidence of this particular case, we have all concluded, every single agent and prosecutor¹ on this case, that there simply is not sufficient evidence to proceed with a federal charge.

KASTE: But Amundson also prefaced his remarks yesterday by pointing out that he and all his colleagues on this case are career public servants who've worked for the Justice Department for years. The implication was clear. In this era of President Trump¹⁴ and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, both of whom have repeatedly expressed their support for police, Amundson did not want this prosecutorial¹⁵ decision to be seen as political. Martin Kaste, NPR News.

1 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

2 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

3 sterling   

adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑)

参考例句：

• Could you tell me the current rate for sterling, please?能否请您告诉我现行英国货币的兑换率？
• Sterling has recently been strong,which will help to abate inflationary pressures.英国货币最近非常坚挺，这有助于减轻通胀压力。

4 prosecuted   

a.被起诉的

参考例句：

• The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 bowling   

n.保龄球运动

参考例句：

• Bowling is a popular sport with young and old.保龄球是老少都爱的运动。
• Which sport do you 1ike most,golf or bowling?你最喜欢什么运动，高尔夫还是保龄球？

7 statistically   

ad.根据统计数据来看，从统计学的观点来看

参考例句：

• The sample of building permits is larger and therefore, statistically satisfying. 建筑许可数的样本比较大，所以统计数据更令人满意。
• The results of each test would have to be statistically independent. 每次试验的结果在统计上必须是独立的。

8 prosecution   

n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营

参考例句：

• The Smiths brought a prosecution against the organizers.史密斯家对组织者们提出起诉。
• He attempts to rebut the assertion made by the prosecution witness.他试图反驳原告方证人所作的断言。

9 prosecutions   

起诉( prosecution的名词复数 )； 原告； 实施； 从事

参考例句：

• It is the duty of the Attorney-General to institute prosecutions. 检察总长负责提起公诉。
• Since World War II, the government has been active in its antitrust prosecutions. 第二次世界大战以来，政府积极地进行着反对托拉斯的检举活动。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

10 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

11 baton   

n.乐队用指挥杖

参考例句：

• With the baton the conductor was beating time.乐队指挥用指挥棒打拍子。
• The conductor waved his baton,and the band started up.指挥挥动指挥棒，乐队开始演奏起来。

12 rouge   

n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红

参考例句：

• Women put rouge on their cheeks to make their faces pretty.女人往面颊上涂胭脂，使脸更漂亮。
• She didn't need any powder or lip rouge to make her pretty.她天生漂亮，不需要任何脂粉唇膏打扮自己。

13 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

14 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

15 prosecutorial   

公诉人的，原告的； 起诉的

参考例句：

• If prosecutorial misconduct results in a mistrial, a later prosecution may be barred. 如果检察官的不轨行为导致审判无效，再行起诉可能会被除数禁止。 来自口语例句
• Prosecutorial supervision is required according to public power attribution of civil litigation. 民事诉讼的个性和检察监督是对立统一的关系，并不排斥检察监督。