I know what I think I saw, let the investigation play out, and learn more.
Not, that the end result will match the info from the investigation.
I do know that in the last several years we have seen this reaction from a number of situations. Some in which the cops performed exactly as they should.
In too many though, they were wrong.
And, other than public opinion, suffered nothing as the result of someone dying needlessly.
Some, would have easily been charged and imprisoned if they weren't Blue. Others, probably didn't deserve charges, But clearly showed they were in the wrong profession.
I don't understand this Blue Line thing.
How can someone proud of their profession, dedicated to upholding the law, not be incensed when they find a traitor to the cause.
Why is it them against us? I'm not against them. I wish they would do a better job policing themselves. I want to have that childish, traditional respect toward cops.
Instead. I have had that conservation with my kids.
The one a former president alluded to.
Except, my kids aren't ghetto black boys. They are are articulate white females.
The guide for all arrests and use of force is the 4th Amendment. This is difficult for a lot of Americans to understand because when they hear search and seizure they think "searching my car" or "seizing my boat." But all arrests are a seizure in the eyes of our courts, and any use of force that is applied during that seizure, is also viewed through the glass of the 4th Amendment. In its most plain terms, death is the ultimate seizure that the government can perform against an individual. The state has taken a life.
When a case goes before a court the objective is to determine if the officer acted in a reasonable fashion.
The factors that can be weighed to determine if the officer/officers behaved reasonably are LIMITLESS. They can include but not be limited to, severity of the crime, level of resistance by the subject, which of the parties involved escalated the encounter, which of the parties involved tried to keep the encounter from escalation, training, prior knowledge of subject, lack of prior knowledge of subject, an officer's level of experience, an officer's lack of experience, size and skill of an officer, size and skill of a subject, and on, and on, it goes. And keep in mind that hindsight cannot be used as a factor and that judge and jury must consider factors like adrenaline and split second decision making.
Law enforcement is not viewed the same as non-law enforcement. I hate to break that news to people, but the courts decided long ago that an agent of the state will be viewed differently than Joe Schit the Ragman.
Suffice to say that simply watching a video and making a guess as to what happened, and who is culpable, is most always a bad idea. It is only going to be one factor in the outcome of the case. This has been proven 100X's over, i.e. Rodney King, Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, etc.
Yet Americans just keep taking the bait and refuse to understand how the 4th Amendment applies to them and theirs if a law dog chooses to interact with them.
Dave,
Thank you for sharing your professional perspective.
Most of these discussions lack a proper perspective.
You didn't use logic or reason to get into this opinion, I cannot use logic or reason to get you out of it.
You cannot over estimate the unimportance of nearly everything. John Maxwell
