Obama's AG nominee was the prosecuor in the most notorious New York police brutality case

Loretta Lynch, nominated by President Obama to replace Attorney General Eric Holder and currently awaiting her confirmation hearings, was the prosecutor in the infamous 1997 case of police brutality against a Haitian immigrant Abner Louima.    She prosecuted the federal case against the police officer, who was convicted and is still in jail on a 17 year sentence.

Coming at this time, her hearings are likely to be dominated by this issue and what the Department of Justice can and should do about this national crisis of trust between law enforcement and minority, especially black, citizens.

If confirmed, she would continue both the federal investigation into the death of Eric Garner and the national initiative just begun by Holder at the behest of the president to improve relations and trust between law enforcement and the black community.

There is every indication that she is up to the task, having already expressed her position on "the pain of broken trust" between the two groups:

"Frankly, the onus is on law enforcement because we are the ones who have taken an oath to protect and to serve the people . . .  And we are the ones who have the ability to change from within."

Sounds like the president has made a good choice, in addition to the fact that she would be the first African-American woman to be Attorney General.   

If the very white Republicans try to use this confirmation to take another partisan slap at the president, then I think we could make a good case for racism in denying our first black president the right to have the first black woman Attorney General to spearhead improving trust between (mostly) white law enforcement and black citizens.   Even if their motive is not racial but just pure political spite, public opinion is going to draw that conclusion.   So they should think about that if they want to show that they can govern responsibly and have any hope of winning in 2016.

Ralph