Police shootings in Riverside, California and Brooklyn, New York have inflamed public opinion but produced opposite results. PNS commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson explains why and concludes the only hope for justice lies with the Feds. Hutchinson is the author of "The Crisis in Black and Black."

LOS ANGELES -- When police investigate police the inevitable happens. They clear themselves of any wrongdoing. The script didn't change when the District Attorney is Riverside, Ca. announced on May 6 that a police investigation found no grounds to prosecute the four Riverside police officers who killed 19-year-old Tyisha Miller.

The DA's announcement stood in stark contrast to the events surrounding the shooting of Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo by four white New York police officers a month after the Miller slaying. After dozens of marches, demonstrations, and the arrest of hundreds of high profile public officials, civil rights leaders, and celebrities the four cops were indicted on second degree murder charges.

The DA's announcement of non-action was even more disappointing considering that the Miller killing as much as the Diallo killing rammed the issue of police violence into the national spotlight. In dozens of cities police officials scrambled to review their department's training and practices. City officials rushed to insist that they would not tolerate police misconduct. The Justice Department swore to monitor police abuse cases more closely. And an anguished President Clinton promised to dump more federal funds into better police training.

Just as Diallo killing tossed a harsh public glare on abuse within the NYPD, the Miller slaying tossed the same glare on police abuse within the Riverside police department. A three year comparison by the Riverside Press-Enterprise with other California cities of similar size revealed that Riverside police were more likely to use excessive force, more likely to arrest blacks and Latinos, and less likely to receive any disciplinary action than police in the other cities.

The breakdown of discipline seemed especially apparent when a police supervisor and another officer at the scene of the Miller shooting reportedly made racially-offensive cracks that the "wails" of her friends and relatives sounded like a Kwanza celebration. Police officials, however, immediately declared confidence in the officers and only then promised to investigate the remarks. They gave no timetable for completion of the investigation or said what if any punishment would be taken if racial slurs were made.

Despite the disturbing pattern of police misconduct in Riverside, city officials circled the wagons and hired a PR firm to spruce up the city's tarnished image, sharply attacked a local newspaper for exposing police misconduct, appointed a citizen's committee that made only the most cosmetic recommendations for changes in police training, and allowed the police department to take nearly five months to investigate itself.

Now that the police have exonerated themselves the big question is what will the Feds do? From the very moment Miller was shot, her family members and supporters expressed deep doubt that the DA would prosecute the officers. They relentlessly demanded that the Feds file charges. There was some cause for hope that they might. In March, Attorney General Janet Reno told black leaders that the Justice Department has prosecuted 100 police officers for misconduct and that there are 300 more cases under investigation. She also told them that the Department would closely examine police practices nationally. What Reno did not tell them was that the number of federal prosecutions are pitifully small when compared to the soaring level of police violence nationally.

Federal prosecutors claim the reason that they can't nail more rogue cops is that they are hamstrung by lack funds, staff, the difficulty of convincing juries that police lie and are abusive, and the requirement that they prove that an officer had a specific intent to commit mayhem or murder against the victim in order to convict. These are colossal obstacles and many prosecutors simply throw up their hands and ignore even the worst cases of police abuse.

The rare exceptions when they don't is after major riots such as those in L.A. that followed the acquittal of the four LAPD cops who beat Rodney King. Or following sustained mass demonstrations such as those in New York after four NYPD officers were accused of beating and torturing Haitian immigrant Abner Louima.

As outrageous as the Miller slaying appears to many there have been no civil disturbances or ruckus mass demonstrations in Riverside demanding justice. But the Miller slaying still screams for justice and since the Feds have publicly promised to pursue police abuse cases they should be held to that promise.