Claudine Fox, the Connecticut ACLU’s public policy and advocacy director, wrote quite a disturbing opinion piece in the October 7 CTMirror. Fox suggests that the new state inspector general should be a passionate advocate who should engage in politically enhancing police accountability.
The new inspector general was created by state law to investigate and prosecute police officers and corrections employees who are suspected of illegal use of force or taking of life. A prosecutor is supposed to seek truth in an investigation. If the findings warrant it, the inspector general is supposed to prosecute any law enforcement official it believes that evidence shows is guilty.
It is shocking to read that the ACLU wants a prosecutorial official to be an advocate first and a truth finder second – or at all? Is that not the charge that the ACLU has used as an indictment of the American justice system?
The ACLU has pointed out that the U.S. has had a sad modern history of locking up more of its citizens per capita than any nation on earth. Lawmakers of both parties, and a majority of citizens, have seemed to agree with the ACLU on this point. The ACLU has argued that overemphasis of prosecuting drug crimes has led to creation of a bureaucracy that led to overzealous prosecution of citizens (mostly Black and brown).
It is ironic that the ACLU now argues for a special prosecutor for a particular type of crime, and one that should put zeal ahead of other considerations. Does this not fall into the logic of two wrongs making a right?
Will justice and citizens not be served better by an inspector general who operates without passion or prejudice? History shows that when we go looking for witches we find them. The ACLU seems perilously close to arguing for a “Witch-finder General.”
Troy Raccuia is the Director of Collective Bargaining at Council 4 AFSCME.