U.S. government faces high bar charging cop in Ferguson death

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. government prosecutors investigating the fatal police shooting of a black teenager that sparked a Missouri city's nights of rage face an uphill fight delivering the swift or sweeping results demanded by rights activists.

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch expects a local grand jury investigating the killing to take evidence until mid-October, while a federal investigation may take longer and with results just as uncertain.

Protesters have called for the arrest of Officer Darren Wilson since the killing of Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson on Aug. 9. Defenders of the white officer say he acted lawfully to defend himself during a confrontation with Brown.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder answered calls for an independent investigation this week, putting some 40 FBI agents along with prosecutors in his Justice Department's Civil Rights Division on the case despite the legal challenges.

What makes it difficult for the U.S. Justice Department to prosecute local police for criminal civil rights violations, even when a death results, is the high bar of proving an officer's intent to violate civil rights.

Under laws in the United States, criminal charges of murder or manslaughter are most often left to the states, and federal criminal charges typically are brought against local law enforcement as violations of people's civil rights.

“The government has to show that the police officer acted with specific intent to use more force than was reasonably necessary under the circumstances. You can’t prosecute a police officer for making a mistake or even for a lack of judgment,” said William Yeomans, a former acting head of the Civil Rights Division.

"That can be particularly hard," he said. "They rarely set out to shoot someone.”

This time the pressures are greater on the Justice Department because of the nightly disturbances underscoring the community's racial tensions and because of demands from civil rights leaders for federal government action.

and maybe because the officer's actions were justified.

they have looters on tape

how many of them have been arrested

40 FBI agents? Gee, I wonder if they had to take them off of the IRS case?