Brickbat: Two-Tiered Justice

A federal judge sentenced Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Douglas Kirk to four months in prison after he was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of excessive force despite being previously convicted of a felony. In February 2025, a federal jury convicted Kirk of the felony, which carried a potential 10-year sentence, for his actions during a June 2023 arrest in a Lancaster, California, grocery store parking lot, where he used excessive force on a couple. But after the new Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli took office, prosecutors offered Kirk a deal to plead guilty to a misdemeanor.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's SOFT ON CRIME all the way down.

[bye]

When the couple's children find out, ole Kirk might see justice served up with the personal touch.

[Medulla Oblongata]

It was mostly peaceful force, so I'm really surprised he wasn't just released and that Kamala Harris didn't post his bail.

[Don't look at me! (I have soft power)]

Difficult to make a determination fairness without knowing the skin colors of everyone involved.

[mad.casual]

Trump is white, what more do you need to know?

[Rise of the Impedance]

He looks more orange to me.

[Rick James]

This feels in line with Angela Davis' theories.

[MollyGodiva]

Can any actual lawyer say how common it is for a prosecutor to accept a plea deal after they won an conviction in court but before any appeals?

[AT]

prosecutors also offered Kirk a misdemeanor plea agreement under the prior administration, which he turned down.

Weird omission, Chaz.

[Get To Da Chippah]

A new approach by federal prosecutors

Kirk’s case is the latest showing the Trump administration’s plan to take a lighter hand in the federal government’s traditional role in prosecuting police misconduct. Trump’s April executive order on policing promised the “unleashing” of law enforcement and support for their legal defense.

The Justice Department announced in May it was canceling proposed consent decrees reached with Minneapolis and Louisville to implement policing reforms in the wake of the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. The department also announced it would retract its findings in six other sweeping investigations into police departments that the Biden administration had accused of civil rights violations.

Trump-appointed federal judges have also played a hand in dismissing cases against police officers, including murder charges against a former Atlanta police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man hiding in a closet in 2019.

Do you want vigilantes ambushing cops? Because this is how you get vigilantes ambushing cops.

[AT]

And illegals.