NATIONAL NEWS NETWORK SPECIAL REPORT

Host: We’re awaiting the grand jury decision on Officer Darren Henderson. Joining me is attorney Christine Emory and NNN’s own Bobbi Rockwell.

Emory: It’s clear from their choice of location to announce.

Rockwell: What do you mean?

Emory: It’s customary to make this sort of announcement from the courthouse, where the grand jury is actually impaneled.

Rockwell: Instead they’re announcing from the police precinct in Underhill.

Emory: They know people are going to be unhappy, and they don’t want it spilling over into other neighborhoods.

Host: We’ll know soon enough. The verdict will be announced any minute. Let’s review the facts of the case. The onus is on the prosecution to convince the grand jury that there is enough evidence to take Henderson to trial.

Emory: The district attorney’s office works closely with the police. How invested are they in making that case?

Rockwell: No way to know.

Host: They have a responsibility to the citizens, as much as to the police.

Emory: More so. But if you look at the law, it’s less clear than it seems to a layperson. A trial jury would be tasked to determine whether the police officer’s actions were reasonable, in the moment.

Rockwell: Not in hindsight.

Emory: Exactly. Based on the information he had at the time, did he perceive a credible threat?

Rockwell: Obviously not. She was a small girl.

Emory: We know that now. Is it reasonable to expect that Henderson knew that in the moment?

Rockwell: Is it reasonable for anyone to mistake an unarmed child for a serious threat?

Emory: The issue is bias. A jury—in this country, in this time—may be operating with a similar bias to the one that led Henderson to shoot at Shae Tatum. Consider the mindset that led him to take lethal action against a child: the assumption that anything black that moves is a threat.

Rockwell: You think they will find it objectively reasonable that he thought she was a threat?

Emory: It won’t be objective. Anti-black bias is part of the fabric of our culture.

Rockwell: How do you achieve objectivity in such a case? Isn’t that a core part of the jury’s charge?

Emory: There’s the rub. What do you do when the “random” group of citizens meant to judge the case is incapable of objectivity? They’re asked to imagine whether any other police officer in the same situation, given the same information, would have made the same split-second decision. And given the nature of anti-black bias, the answer is likely yes.

Rockwell: That’s—

Emory: It’s an indictment of something … but not Henderson.

Host: The verdict is coming in. We’re going live to the Underhill police precinct for the announcement.

JENNICA

When the verdict comes down, the diner closes early. Shades drawn, I write the sign for the window myself: Black-Owned Business.

Tape the corners in place. Kiss the paper with a tiny prayer: Let this building survive the night. Let my job be here in the morning.