A Dangerous Precedent - the Passing on Justice by the US Department of Justice

That a Black man, or any man or any woman for that matter, could be pinned down, shot and killed by police, then to have the United States(US) Department of Justice pass on prosecuting the police for the killing, is a dangerous precedent for the new attorney general and his office to set in a time that could prove very turbulent.

Alton Sterling was killed last summer in the US state of Louisiana by police. Video of the shooting showed police pinning Sterling down before he was killed. Yet, Donald Trump's Department of Justice yesterday decided not to file any charges against the policemen involved in the shooting.

Though the state of Louisiana could still bring charges against the officers involved in the killing of Sterling, yesterday's action by the Trump administration reverses historical acts by the Federal government as the go-to protector of the civil and human rights of citizens via intervention to charge and to prosecute guilty parties in lieu of failures to do so by the states.

Today, based upon yesterday's announcement, it seems that the Trump administration, with a Department of Justice led by Jeff Sessions, who has had a very questionable experience per race relations, will now opt to defer justice in any controversial race-related matters back to the states that have had horrible track records of protecting and upholding minority and civil rights.

For the Department of Justice to pass on rendering justice in such a blatant action that resulted in death, sets a clear dangerous precedent that will inevitably conflict with the insistence of minorities and other groups to have justice served.