ALABAMA – The justice system “worked” and law enforcement universally across the country condemned the tactics of convicted murderer and former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said Thursday.
But during a speech at a vigil for crime victims, the state’s top prosecutor chided those who want to see cities reduce funding for police agencies. He also said that law enforcement officers have been crime victims themselves since 2019. FBI data last year showed a rise in “felonious officer deaths” between 2019 and 2020.
“Respect is at an all-time low,” Marshall said during remarks at a vigil honoring National Crime Victims’ Rights Week at Cooper Riverside Park in downtown Mobile. “Those who want to defund and hurt police are looking for police to protect them when they get in harms’ way.”
Marshall, during an interview with AL.com, said he felt prosecutors in Minnesota proved Chauvin’s guilt in the murder of George Floyd during Memorial Day last year was “beyond a reasonable doubt.” He said that law enforcement “universally across this country including Alabama” condemned Chauvin’s actions.
“At the same time, we need to acknowledge that is not the norm,” Marshall said. “That is not how law enforcement acts. To somehow paint a broad brush as if that is how law enforcement interacts with people is absolutely incorrect. It’s inconsistent with my 20-plus years of working with law enforcement. With what I know are the positive stories of change in communities and the fact that people who were here (at the vigil) were able to work with law enforcement to be able to attain justice.”
Marshall said he supports some police reform initiatives, such as the creation of a database that would allow that would allow police to run a pre-employment background check on police officers who move from one department to the next. The database is part of HB411, sponsored by state Rep. A.J. McCampbell, D-Linden and state Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham, which was signed into law Thursday by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey.
“We have to continue to improve skills and knowledge and what we actively do in the Attorney General’s Office is work to train law enforcement and prosecutors around the state in best practices and try to advocate for those things that work,” Marshall said.
National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, recognized annually in April for the past 40 years, coincided with the Chauvin verdict.
For Ramona Carter, the Chauvin verdict represented a rare sense of closure that she said her family is not experiencing.
“When we feel like we haven’t got the right justice, it doesn’t seem like closure,” said Carter, a Mobile resident and aunt of Kevin Benjamin Jr. who was murdered during a robbery near his home on April 30, 2018. The killers, Carter said, were sentenced to three years in prison.
“It seems like another loss all over again,” she said.
Carter accompanied Kevin’s father, Kevin Benjamin Sr., to a vigil.
“He was my oldest son,” said Benjamin Sr. “He was 19 years old. He’d be 23 on April 30. I lost everything. There was no justice served.”
The vigil also occurred the same week that the Alabama Legislature approved “Aniah’s Law,” which is state legislation that gives judges more discretion in denying bail to people accused of violent crimes. The legislation sponsored by state Rep. Chip Brown, R-Mobile, is named after 19-year-old Aniah Blanchard of Homewood who was abducted from a convenience store in Auburn and murdered in 2019.The man charged in her death had been released on bond after being charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, and robbery.
Lawrence Battiste, the executive director of public safety with the city of Mobile, said the legislation’s passage — which still needs Ivey’s signature — was a significant milestone achieved during the week and sends a message that, “our community knows there is a justice system out there doing everything it can to get it right as often as it can.”
Battiste joined other vigil speakers in telling victims of horrific crimes that law enforcement was available to support them.
“I think most of our victims are here are to show an air of solidarity and unit of family members who have lost loved ones or were victimized by some kind of crime,” he said.
Sarah Hixson of Mobile was one victim who spoke and told her emotional story about being the victim of domestic abuse. She urged other victims of domestic abuse to “call someone you trust” and to “know your life is more important than saving our abusers life.”
“I am a survivor of domestic violence,” said Hixson. “It doesn’t define me. It’s just a part of my story.”
