in my time been thrown off about half of the time. you always have to reinforce success. it always takes more resources to hold on than it does to take it in the first place. and that may be the case in this instance too, because we have to remember that these are shia militias and this is very much a sunni neighborhood. this is, in fact, the heart of the sunni province there, anbar province. so we have to also remember that this sort of sectarian divide is what got iraq into the mess in the first place. so how concerned are you about the prospects of a massacre and can this cycle of violence be stopped? well if there isn t some retribution that takes place, if as and when the shia mill slish shahs take over it will be the first time that ever happens so i think you can expect sectarian violence which as you say is the basis of all this be the cycle of violence you know i ve been thinking about that a lot, we haven t seen an end to it and we
the community, so the department of justice is obviously aware of that. they looked at the cleveland police department. this was one of the cases that they looked at when they came to their conclusion that this department needed some help needed more training of its police officers. there were some issues to address and now, of course, be there s been an acquittal in this case. they have to take this into consideration in their decisions to move forward with and work with the police department in cleveland. all right. faith jenkins thank you for weighing in. let all of our viewers know we will continue to monitor any press conferences that come and any developments and bring you the latest later on in this hour. the man askew accused of murdering a wealthy man and his family may not have acted alone. court investigators believe the crime required the presence and assistance of more than one person. the documents also show police found some inconsistencies with witness statement
welcome back to weekends with alex witt. breaking news out of cleveland where a judge found police officer michael brelo not guilty on all charges including voluntary manslaughter. this in connection with the 2012 fatal shootings of timothy russell and malissa williams both who were unarmed. the incident known as the 137 shots case because of the number of bullets fired by the 13 police officers at the end of a high-speed chase. officer brelo himself fired the most shots, 49 total, but his last 15 shots resulted in the voluntary manslaughter charges. prosecutors say those shots were fired from the hood of russell s car straight down into the windshield with the intent to kill since at that point the car was stopped and the occupants did not pose a threat. the chase began after russell s 1979 malibu backfired after it was driving by police headquarters that gave officers the impression someone in the car fired a gun. malissa williams brother had
car and that the shots prior to that they argued his defense attorneys argued could be justified use of force as the officer thought he was being fired upon when it was shows from other police. this whole thing was a total disaster poorly supervised outrageous police conduct with the chase. this officer on the hood of the car firing into these two folks who did nothing wrong. just cleveland police has to be revamped. the chief saying they re doing that. it s an outrageous case in my view. you say you think officer brelo should be fired. we should make a point to say the chief of police says he s under indefinite suspension not paid, everything will be reviewed. that could be the outcome. tell me jim, how this happens. 137 shots by 13 police officers. i mean you mentioned that the police chief has said look there s going to a lot of review, we will make some changes here but how does that even happen in the first place? it seems so incredibly out of control.
think overall the other high-profile cases might have played not only in the decision of the judge, but in what s to come? first, i want to say it s highly unusual a judge would make that kind of commentary and giving a verdict in a particular case usually they will stick to the facts and the law and their decision and their comments are very narrowly construed to reflect that. however, alex this judge recognizes the environment that we that he is faced with in this community on the heels of the tamir rice shooting and the killing of tamir rice and everything else that s taken place in this country in the last several months with the killing of several unarmed people of color by the police. he is aware of that. this is another one of those cases where you have individuals who are unarmed and they are fired upon at least 137 shots on the face of that, it looks like excessive force. why would you fire 137 shots