It's going to be near impossible to convict latest killer cop.

[dutch508]

Star Member brush (34,834 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215341247

It's going to be near impossible to convict latest killer cop.

She's just going to claim she made a mistake/panicked in a moment of stress. She was not only a 26-year veteran and president of the police union, she was also a training officer. She might have actually been out training the other two officers on that stop, (and of course she picked a driving-while-black driver on a trivial matter that should've been ignored in these pandemic times) and in trying to demonstrate how to handle the arrest, she f_cked up. I mean how many arrests which suddenly turned violent has she had to handled on a sleepy, small town force of under fifty officers, even if she is a long-time veteran?

She screwed up big time under stress and her lawyer is going to play that to the hilt.

 

Yeah... they have criteria for when a crime is committed just for dumb****s like you.

Caliman73 (7,620 posts)

1. I don't think a conviction on criminally negligent homicide will be impossible.

She can claim all she wants. The fact that she is a 26 year veteran AND a training officer will strongly suggest that she should not have panicked. The defense can stress that but the prosecution can focus on the fact that her negligent actions, and the fact that there was instruction not to perform stops on minor issues lead to the young man's death. She allowed the situation to escalate.

The ****in piece of shit criminal escalated the stop when he resisted and tried to flee the scene.

Star Member brush (34,834 posts)

2. Great points all. I hope you're right. What happens in the Chauvin trial will...

have a huge influence, IMO, all over the nation in killer cop cases. If he walks or it's a hung jury because of one juror, we'll see that repeated all over.

If he's convicted, which is what should happen, that'll have tremendous influence in breaking the blue wall of silence, just as the several cops who testified against Chauvin already did.

Caliman73 (7,620 posts)

3. Agreed. Chauvin is definitely a marker.

I am know that I am biased, but it is difficult to see how reasonable doubt could have been introduced by the defense that I observed through the trial. The prosecution put on a masterful case.

 

Star Member Withywindle (9,319 posts)

4. I saw a tweet from a doctor about this that made a very good point

You know who else often has to make life-or-death decisions very quickly on the job? Medical professionals. If a doctor or nurse grabs the wrong piece of equipment, or the wrong type of medication or what have you in a panic, and someone dies because of that? They face consequences. Maybe not criminal conviction, but very likely hefty malpractice suit and loss of a license if it's really bad.

You admit you're so bad at your job that after 26 years you still make a mistake that led to a wrongful death? You don't get to have that job anymore. McDonald's is always hiring.

edit: I know she resigned. But sometimes the gang finds a way to sneak them back in somewhere else. Similar to the way the Catholic Church moves pedophile priests around.

 

Star Member PJMcK (15,549 posts)

11. A question about police equipment

Most cops wear a utility belt for their gear. This includes their firearm, a flashlight, handcuffs, pepper spray, a Taser (maybe), a hand-held radio and other equipment that police need in the course of their duties. The fully-loaded belt probably weighs 20 lbs.!

If a cop is carrying both a pistol and a Taser, are they worn on the same side of the officer's body or are they next to one another? How did Kim Potter set up her utility belt?

Seems like it would be hard to confuse the two weapons especially if they're on different sides of the body.

see my answer in a different thread.

Star Member StarfishSaver (14,308 posts)

25. She either shot him on purpose or so completely overreacted to his behavior that she panicked

And no one will convince me that, if it was an overreaction resulting in panic, that that overreaction had nothing to do with his race.

 

Star Member StarfishSaver (14,308 posts)

29. I'm highly suspicious of her claim that she "mistook" her gun for a taser

It doesn't pass the smell test to me. She isn't some rookie. She's a highly trained veteran.

Yes, people make mistakes. But why did she make such a mistake? What was so stressful and life-threatening that she would panic like that? Why did she even think she needed to tase him? Would she have had the same reaction if Duante were a white guy? Why do these "mistakes" seem to happen disproportionately to Black people? Could it be because cops too often see Black men as more inherently dangerous than similarly situated white men?

These are valid and important questions. And I, for one, am tired of having to ask them and tired of them not being answered. And I'm really tired of excuse after excuse after excuse being made to justify the extrajudicial murders of Black people.

Here we are going back and forth about whether the cop made a "mistake." We spend a lot of time talking about how stressed cops are and whether they panicked or made the wrong decision in a split second. But when Black men don't comply perfectly, people are quick to blame them for their deaths. They aren't given the benefit of the doubt. Their fear and stress are not acknowledged. No. They must think clearly and rationally and behave in an exemplary fashion or their deaths are their fault and no one else's.

I'm sick of it.

Star Member LAS14 (11,589 posts)

31. You seriously thinks she was calling out "I'll tase you" over and over and...

... then said "Oh ****, I shot him," so she could cover up an intentional murder??????

Star Member StarfishSaver (14,308 posts)

32. It's happened before

Cops have been known to say things before shooting people that turn out to have been a ruse.

"Stop resisting arrest!" and "He's going for my gun!" are common ones.

I'm not saying that's what happened here. But I also don't just accept at face value what she said and what she now claims just because she says happened. How much longer are we going to give the police a benefit of the doubt they don't deserve - especially after how often we've seen that lying and covering up is not an unusual phenomenon?

 

Star Member Disaffected (1,622 posts)

34. In view of what we know at this time,

I would agree on all your points.

Every case has to be judged on its own merits...

Star Member StarfishSaver (14,308 posts)

38. Yes and no

Every case has to be judged on its own merits, but they cannot be judged in a vacuum.

Unfortunately, too many people are all too willing to put on blinders and pretend that each case has no connection to any other larger set of circumstances.

That makes it easy to dismiss the shooting of Jacob Blake as justified and not based on a y racial bias because he didn't "comply" and then dismiss the shooting of Adam Toledo because he complied but could have had a gun in his hand when he did exactly as he was told and then dismiss the murder of George Floyd because he had a record and then dismiss the murder of Duante Wright because he had a warrant and then dismiss the shooting of Rayshard Brooks because because he shouldn't have tried to run away, etc. ...

And If you ignore the fact that this keeps happening over and over and over again and black men are shot for all kinds of excuses, most of which are completely contradictory ... And if you further ignore the fact that white people in similar and worsr situations are not shot down in the streets this way, it's really simple to claim that each individual shooting is justified and understandable.

Only if you pull back and look at all of this in context can you see the real picture.

 

Star Member Disaffected (1,622 posts)

43. So then, we are left with

assumption, suspicion, generalization, stereotyping, smell tests and guilt by association. The courts don't work on those premises for very good reasons and neither should anyone else. I really doubt your arguments would be allowed as testimony in any court.

I also don't believe most anyone here is ignoring or dismissive of other shootings.

 

[ADsOutburst]

Oooh, this thread is a doozy, even for DU. 

Caliman73 (7,620 posts)

3. Agreed. Chauvin is definitely a marker.

I am know that I am biased, but it is difficult to see how reasonable doubt could have been introduced by the defense that I observed through the trial. The prosecution put on a masterful case.

Masterful, except for witnesses contradicting each other, witnesses humiliating the prosecution and causing them to look like they were about to shit themselves, and not having a consistent theory of how Floyd died.

From the masters of false equivalence, we bring you the next stupid post:

Star Member Withywindle (9,319 posts)

4. I saw a tweet from a doctor about this that made a very good point

You know who else often has to make life-or-death decisions very quickly on the job? Medical professionals. If a doctor or nurse grabs the wrong piece of equipment, or the wrong type of medication or what have you in a panic, and someone dies because of that? They face consequences. Maybe not criminal conviction, but very likely hefty malpractice suit and loss of a license if it's really bad.

The difference? The medical professionals themselves generally are not in situations in which their own life, or the lives of the public at large, are on the line.

Star Member StarfishSaver (14,308 posts)

32. It's happened before

Cops have been known to say things before shooting people that turn out to have been a ruse.

"Stop resisting arrest!" and "He's going for my gun!" are common ones.

I'm not saying that's what happened here. But I also don't just accept at face value what she said and what she now claims just because she says happened. How much longer are we going to give the police a benefit of the doubt they don't deserve - especially after how often we've seen that lying and covering up is not an unusual phenomenon?

He demonstrably resisted arrest.

Star Member StarfishSaver (14,308 posts)

38. Yes and no

Every case has to be judged on its own merits, but they cannot be judged in a vacuum.

Unfortunately, too many people are all too willing to put on blinders and pretend that each case has no connection to any other larger set of circumstances.

That makes it easy to dismiss the shooting of Jacob Blake as justified and not based on a y racial bias because he didn't "comply" and then dismiss the shooting of Adam Toledo because he complied but could have had a gun in his hand when he did exactly as he was told and then dismiss the murder of George Floyd because he had a record and then dismiss the murder of Duante Wright because he had a warrant and then dismiss the shooting of Rayshard Brooks because because he shouldn't have tried to run away, etc. ...

And If you ignore the fact that this keeps happening over and over and over again and black men are shot for all kinds of excuses, most of which are completely contradictory ... And if you further ignore the fact that white people in similar and worsr situations are not shot down in the streets this way, it's really simple to claim that each individual shooting is justified and understandable.

Only if you pull back and look at all of this in context can you see the real picture.

'Excuses' are made, because most of alleged "extrajudicial murder" of a black person by a police officer turn out to have some backstory that we aren't told, or are bunk altogether. Jacob Blake was not trying to break up a fight, nor was he unarmed, nor was he just trying to leave when cops shot him. Breonna Taylor was not murdered in her sleep by officers who didn't announce their presence, nor were these officers at the wrong address. Rayshard Brooks was shot when he stole an officer's taser, and tried to wield it against the police, not because he tried to flee. The officers didn't face charges because it was a lawful use of force. And the George Floyd case is at the very least much more complicated than the public was led to believe.

[franksolich]

The primitives howling for blood is a pretty gruesome sight.

It makes even the old-time Ku Klux Klan chasing down a helpless sharecropper look like a friendly game of tag.

[thundley4]

Star Member Withywindle (9,319 posts)

4. I saw a tweet from a doctor about this that made a very good point

You know who else often has to make life-or-death decisions very quickly on the job? Medical professionals. If a doctor or nurse grabs the wrong piece of equipment, or the wrong type of medication or what have you in a panic, and someone dies because of that? They face consequences. Maybe not criminal conviction, but very likely hefty malpractice suit and loss of a license if it's really bad.

The third-leading cause of death in US most doctors don’t want you to know about

A recent Johns Hopkins study claims more than 250,000 people in the U.S. die every year from medical errors. Other reports claim the numbers to be as high as 440,000.
Medical errors are the third-leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer.
Advocates are fighting back, pushing for greater legislation for patient safety.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/22/medical-errors-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-america.html

Maybe we need to investigate and see if there is a racial component to these medical mistakes.

[landofconfusion80]

Why do the primitives hate strong women? The white male patriarchy is strong at the DUmp tonight

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

The primitives howling for blood is a pretty gruesome sight.

I would have thought you would be used to it by now.

Withywindle (9,319 posts)

4. I saw a tweet from a doctor about this that made a very good point

You know who else often has to make life-or-death decisions very quickly on the job? Medical professionals. If a doctor or nurse grabs the wrong piece of equipment, or the wrong type of medication or what have you in a panic, and someone dies because of that? They face consequences. Maybe not criminal conviction, but very likely hefty malpractice suit and loss of a license if it's really bad.

You can thank the lawyers for that.

SIDE NOTE, TOTALLY NOT APROPOS OF ANYTHING: Jesus could make peace with thieves, and whores - but He never had a kind word to say about lawyers.

[SVPete]

Star Member brush (34,834 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215341247

It's going to be near impossible to convict latest killer cop.

She's just going to claim she made a mistake/panicked in a moment of stress. ...

Given her dismay and surprise recorded by her body cam, even negligent homicide could be difficult to prove to an impartial jury. I doubt many, if any, DUpipo have been in any split-second life-or-possible-death decision situation, making their arm-chair second-guessing rather silly.