Caleb: With the charges dismissed, would you concur with Radley Balko’s position that Ladd Erickson should lose his job?
He’s hardly the first prosecutor to bring charges that were then summarily dismissed by a judge. I don’t think that is enough, in itself, to say he should resign. There can be a legitimate difference of opinion about whether charges are merited. That being said, I definitely see some troubling behavior and am glad I don’t live in his jurisdiction.
I know about this pipeline and the protests because I have a Native American friend who is rather angry about the whole mess. From what she tells me, the present-day bigotry against Native Americans in many parts of the country, including North Dakota, is up there with the Jim Crow South’s treatment of blacks. Consider how prosecutors treated civil rights protestors in the Jim Crow South, and you’ll see a parallel.