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Holder’s Parting Shot: It’s Too Hard To Bring Civil Rights Cases
ALLEN: “Trayvon Martin’s mother says George Zimmerman got away with murder. You’re writing a letter to Trayvon’s mother, his parents, what will it say?”
HOLDER: “Well, I’m going to try to — it’s yeah — I’m going to pen a letter to them. I’ve worked on it already, and I think I’d like to kind of keep that personal. But one of the things it’s certainly going to talk about is my admiration for the way in which they have conducted themselves. The loss of a child is not something that we are biologically engineered to handle, and the dignity with which they have carried themselves, the determination that has been generated in them to make something positive out of the tragedy that they have had to endure has created in me a great deal of admiration for them.”
ALLEN: “Now, the Ferguson inquiry will be resolved before you leave?”
HOLDER: “Yes.”
ALLEN: “And it looks like no federal charges in Ferguson or Trayvon. I’m a young African-American. What do I think?”
HOLDER: “Well, I would say, first, I would note I have not announced anything with regard to — to Ferguson. “
ALLEN: “Yeah, it looks like it, yeah.”
HOLDER: “But what I said to the people of Ferguson is what I think people ought to understand, is that we have done independent, thorough investigations in all of the matters that we have examined, and we have brought record numbers of cases against police departments around this country. I don’t think anybody would be able to look at this Justice Department over the last six years and say that we’ve been anything other than aggressive in trying to root out inappropriate police conduct while, at the same time, trying to establish, or re-establish bonds of trust between communities of color and people in law enforcement.”
ALLEN: “Mr. Attorney General, are the standards of the civil rights laws too high for you to make cases in instances like this?”
HOLDER: “I mean that’s certainly something that I’m going to want to talk about before I leave. I think some serious consideration needs to be given to the standard of proof that has to be met before federal involvement is appropriate, and that’s something that I am going to be talking about before — before I leave office.”
ALLEN: And in what sense have you come to realize that the standards in the civil rights laws are too high?
HOLDER: “Well, I think that if we adjust those standards, we can make the federal government a better backstop, make us more a part of the process in an appropriate way to reassure the American people that decisions are made by people who are really disinterested, and I think that if we make those adjustments, we will have that capacity.”
ALLEN: “And what is the biggest adjustment you’d like to see?”
HOLDER: “Well, I’m not going to go into it right now, but I’m going to talk about that before I leave.”
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