Mike Parson’s corrupt commutation of killer shows why people don’t trust police | Opinion
It brings us no pleasure to say it, but we knew this was going to happen.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has commuted the sentence of former Kansas City police detective Eric DeValkenaere.
And this political act of cowardice, Kansas City, is precisely why so many people have no faith that the criminal justice system is a level playing field.
DeValkenaere was the first Kansas City police officer ever convicted of killing a Black man while on duty. He fatally shot 26-year-old Cameron Lamb in his own yard on Dec. 3, 2019, after nothing more than a report of a speeding car in the area.
DeValkenaere claimed Lamb was wielding a gun, but even the partner he said he was defending didn’t see one. Phone records demonstrated Lamb was using his cellphone at the time, which was in his right hand. Prosecutors argued that after the shooting, someone planted a gun outside the car under his left hand, which he had only limited use of after an injury.
We surely don’t need to remind you that DeValkenaere asked for a bench trial, likely because he knew he faced dim prospects of acquittal before a jury. Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Dale Youngs found DeValkenaere guilty of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in 2021. Three Parson-appointed judges on the court of appeals later agreed that Lamb was unarmed when he was killed. The Missouri Supreme Court declined to review the conviction. And U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips ruled Lamb’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated.
By commuting the sentence while he’s a lame duck, Parson has taken the pressure off his lieutenant, Mike Kehoe. But DeValkenaere knew he would be heading home soon anyway, as the governor-elect campaigned on an explicit promise to free the ex-officer, whom he counts as a personal friend.
The fact that the governor made the announcement late on Friday afternoon before the sleepy week of Christmas is all the proof you need that he knows what he’s doing is wrong. There has never been any serious suggestion that DeValkenaere was railroaded. No allegation that his trial was unjust, or his six-year sentence unduly harsh.
But if you ever wondered how someone could be moved to embrace the lie that all cops are crooked and violent, well, this is how. We ask that you put yourself in the shoes of Cameron Lamb’s family, friends and neighbors. The life of a father of three was taken in a flash, under highly questionable circumstances. Court after court agreed it was unjustified. But because his killer has friends in the right places, he’s going free long before paying the price for his actions.
What our governor, a supposed law-and-order former sheriff, has done is nothing but a highly political negation of multiple courts — the latest proof that consequences are what happens to those who lack the right connections. And it further drives a wedge between a community that doesn’t trust law enforcement and the many honest police officers who show up and do the right thing every day.
Freeing Eric DeValkenaere isn’t mercy. It’s corruption, an unfair and false indictment of the integrity of the entire Kansas City Police Department. And it will just deepen the widely-held belief that justice is only for the little people.
This story was originally published December 20, 2024 at 5:44 PM.