Big Stop Video Drama Exposes MCC Divisions & The Week Ahead

The stage had been set for a hearing tomorrow morning on an application by Frank Magazine, supported by other media organizations, along with family participants, to have surveillance videos from the Enfield Big Stop be published as exhibits in the Mass Casualty Commission. The issue has been resolved, but how it played out has exposed what appears to be a rift between the MCC lawyers and the three Commissioners. David Hutt, a media lawyer at Burchells, has done excellent work leading the way on the application for Frank Magazine. The MCC was initially opposed to the videos being released, but now say that was all a big misunderstanding. The Federal DOJ had opposed the release as well, but once the MCC lawyers changed their minds, leaving the DOJ alone in opposition, they seem to have calculated that it would be worse to publicly state their untenable position and lose the application than to just let the videos be released. In the course of changing their minds, or at least their position, the MCC lawyers placed the blame squarely on the three Commissioners for the videos not being made public, and even went so far as to say they had not been told why that decision was made and could only presume what the Commissioners reasons may have been. This shot at the Commissioners by the MCC lawyers may be a response to the Commissioners' Interim Report, which reminded us all that they the Commissioners could only act on what was put before them by MCC lawyers, who they have instructed to be tenacious in their pursuit of the evidence. The message from the Commissioners seemed to be, if you have complaints about the MCC, don't blame us. We will hear what the Commissioners have to say about this in the morning. After that, and over the course of Monday and Tuesday, there will be "Small Group Sessions", which are apparently going to be different than "Roundtables" or "Panels" in some meaningful way that is not yet clear.