With highly unusual swiftness, Prince George's County police charged the officer, Michael Owen, 31, with second-degree murder and manslaughter within 24 hours of the shooting. At a Tuesday press conference Prince George's County police chief Hank Stawinski admitted that he was "unable to come to our community this evening and offer you a reasonable explanation for the events that occurred last night. I have concluded that what happened last night is a crime."
At a court hearing Wednesday, a judge denied Owen bond, on the grounds that he is a danger to the community. State's Attorney Aisha N. Braveboy told the Washington Post that a grand jury will be convened in the case and she promised a full investigation.
Owen and another cop initially alleged that Green was under the influence of phencyclidine, known as PCP, when they arrested him after responding to reports of a car slamming into parked vehicles. According to police, when the officers arrived, Green was passed out behind the wheel of his vehicle. Stawinski stated at the press conference announcing the officer's arrest that "We do not believe PCP was involved."
Comment: While the World Socialist Website offers us many good insights in their analysis of news and world events, they would quite probably benefit from the perspective that pathology exists not only in capitalist systems, but in socialist systems as well. The answer is in recognizing where each and every domestic and foreign policy is beneficial or not - not in whether it is "capitalist" or "socialist" per se.
As for the seeming murder of William Green in cold blood by a police officer, we come once again to the fact that the US has pathologized its police force not only materially but psychologically. And we are likely to continue seeing such tragedies until there is some kind of nation-wide overhaul for training and hiring police personnel. Or the space rocks arrive. Whichever comes first.
See: Who Inflicts The Most Gun Violence in America? The U.S. Government And Its Police Forces