Several Prosecutions Against Police in Grand Rapids, Memphis, Recently Fail, Leftist-funded DA’s Struggling to Jail Police Officers

In the past two weeks, two potentially high-profile prosecutions of police officers in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Memphis, Tennessee, have both resulted in rare prosecutorial losses, where police officers accused of murder have been freed at the end of jury trials.

Studies show state prosecutors typically get a conviction or defendants take a plea in over 58% of indictments.

In both Michigan and Tennessee, prosecutors trying to put police in prison after a criminal suspect died during an arrest have been stopped by juries who were not willing to put the officers in prison.

Prosecutors have been steered to the left, some say, by campaign donations from far-left sources. These donations are meant to radically change and upend America’s judicial system by electing lawless prosecutors who are soft on crime but who also aggressively prosecute law enforcement officers.

Prosecutors have also been trying to imprison police officers after the 2020 fentanyl-related death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which set off a series of riots across the country that resulted in billions in property losses. The cultural fallout from the Floyd death, blamed on Officer Derek Chauvin who, it was said, was placing his knee on Floyd’s neck, even though video evidence looked as though it was on his back shoulder blade while three other officers attempted to keep Floyd stable while they waited for paramedics.

President Trump has reportedly been considering a Presidential pardon for Chauvin, currently sentenced to 21 years in a federal trial, alongside 22.5 years in a state sentence.

Leftist media has been indignant about the prospect of Chauvin receiving a pardon on just the federal charges. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) has said he is ‘preparing’ for a Chauvin pardon, even though he has no concrete evidence it is pending.

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker has decided not to retry Grand Rapids Police Officer Christopher Schurr for murder after a mistrial when the jury deadlocked 10–2 in favor of finding Schurr “not guilty.” The case involved the death of Patrick Lyoya on April 4, 2022. Schurr has been fighting for his innocence since being charged in June 2022.

The New York Times buried the fact that the jury was lopsided in favor of acquitting Schurr into the 6th paragraph of their story.

Video evidence makes clear that Lyoya started running from and fighting Officer Schurr, but left-wing activists were angry that Schurr’s body camera stopped recording and that Lyoya was shot in the back of the head. Body camera footage indicates Lyoya had taken Schurr’s TASER from him and was attempting to use it when he was killed by Officer Schurr.

Becker told local media: “I put the best case I could forward when I tried this case. I did the best I could; I did everything I could. The jury couldn’t reach a verdict. I still stand by the decision.”

This anti-cop and anti-law enforcement Prosecutor does not come from George Soros; however, his funding and background trace back to a different set of left-wing billionaires active in Republican politics.

About 67% of Becker’s campaign funding comes directly from the family of Betsy DeVos, with the rest coming from left-wing Republican campaign consultants. The Michigan-based DeVos family, who make billions from both their multi-level marketing Amway corporation as well as sweetheart deals with the Communist Chinese government,

The DeVos family has historically funded liberal Republican candidates, primarily as a way to advance their family’s key political issues: protecting corporate welfare, promoting gay marriage, and defeating pro-Trump conservatives in primaries.

Grand Rapids’ murder rate is twice the national average.

Two weeks ago, a Tennessee jury acquitted three former Memphis police officers—Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith—of all state charges including second-degree murder, in the 2023 death of Tyre Nichols. Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, died after being beaten during a traffic stop by members of the Memphis Police Department’s now-disbanded SCORPION unit. After reviewing the video evidence, the jury found them not guilty.

What made the Memphis case unique was that all of the officers charged were Black, along with the defendant, complicating the media and elite’s attempt to frame Black deaths in police custody as being caused solely by alleged racism.

Two other officers involved, Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., had previously pleaded guilty to state and federal charges and testified against their former colleagues.

The media tried hard to convict the officers, all of whom were Black. Media efforts portrayed Tyre Nichols as wholly innocent and overlooked key facts about the incident, including that Nichols had a prior history of reckless driving and evading police—details largely ignored by national media.

Bodycam footage also showed Nichols fled after being pulled over, escalating the situation and creating confusion that complicated officers’ decision-making in the critical moments that followed.

The Nichols prosecution was led by Shelby County Deputy District Attorney Paul Hagerman. Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said after the acquittal, “I’m very proud of the work that our trial team has done. They’ve worked very hard for a long time in preparing this case. They were very thoroughly prepared, and they fought really hard to get justice for Tyre Nichols.”

Memphis is the most dangerous city in America. Roughly 14% of reported crimes are “cleared” by the police.

Steve Mulroy has taken a reported $616,100 from George Soros.

After skyrocketing crime in many U.S. cities, where studies have shown 40% of the nation’s murders are taking place in jurisdictions controlled by a Soros-backed District Attorney, many of the Soros-funded DAs have been recalled. Nearly two dozen have lost their jobs since 2022.

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