Cash Gernon would be Alive if the Dallas Police Department did its Job

CBS New reports that Dallas County is now charging Darriynn Brown for crimes he allegedly committed in February. Prosecutors allege that on February 8, Brown broke into a home, rummaged around, was confronted by the homeowner who chased him out at knifepoint, returned, forced his way back into the house, punched a resident in the face, grabbed a toddler and tried to make off with her. Luckily, the residents were able to wrestle the two-year-old girl back from Brown. He eventually fled.

According the CBS report, “At the time of the incident, the homeowner decided not to press charges.” What? Is that honestly supposed to explain away this tragic failure to act?

Why wouldn’t the homeowner want to press charges, and would it matter? We have been hearing reports of people being pressured to “not press charges” by the police. This is absurd.

According to some lawyers:

In Texas, crime victims do not formally “press charges” against the other person. In criminal cases, it is the State, specifically the district attorney’s office that files charges against people. Criminal cases are between the offender and the State, not the offender and the accuser. Because the accuser is not a party to the case, he or she does not have the authority to press or drop charges personally.

Another blog summarizes the “press charges” issue, at least as it operates “in the real world”:

In the real world, if the police suspect a crime has occurred, they will fully investigate it, and will not hesitate to take suspects into custody, even if the victim makes it clear that he or she does not want to press charges.
From there, the prosecutor or district attorney will decide whether to charge anyone with a crime. What the victim thinks is the appropriate punishment for the alleged perpetrator does factor into the prosecutor’s decision – especially given the recently passed Marsy’s Law. However, the charging decision is completely in the hands of the prosecutor.

Of course, the author of that blog is talking about “the real world.” It is now 2021, and we clearly live in clown world. We live in a world where people get charged for defending themselves while others walk around after breaking into homes, punching residents, and grabbing toddlers.

As we reported earlier, neighbors had been complaining to police about Brown for months. This wasn’t a case that would have required FBI Criminal Profilers (they are all busy examining the Facebook like-ing behavior of January 6 protestors anyway). There were many videos and photos of Brown prowling the neighborhood. If the DPD wanted to solve this case, it could have.