Adhering To Principle

The decision by Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson to recommend house arrest, but no jail time, for the former New York City police officer convicted of manslaughter in the shooting of an unarmed man in a pitch black stairwell of a housing project is a welcome example of prosecutorial statesmanship. The politics of the matter should have pushed him in a different direction.

The victim was an entirely innocent young African American who was killed by a bullet fired from the officer’s gun that ricocheted off the stairwell wall and hit him. The feelings in the African American community ran strongly in favor of a hefty sentence for the officer, who though he had not targeted the young man apparently drew his gun due to a heightened fear of his surroundings and overreacted. And Mr. Thompson, himself an African-American, relied heavily on the black vote in his 2013 election.

The district attorney obviously took into account that the officer (who has since been fired) was a rookie, had no history of violence, was plainly on a dangerous assignment, and did not appear to have acted out of malice.

It is hard to think of this tragedy in terms of right or wrong. But we do feel that District Attorney Thompson made an important statement about his sense of fairness and even-handedness.