So You’re Celebrating The Kim Potter Verdict?

The American justice system failed former Brooklyn Center police officer Kimberly Potter. From the initial release of body camera footage, it was clear she made a tragic and deadly mistake. End of story. Full stop. Nothing was criminal about what happened, unless you consider the fact that Daunte Wright was a thugging animal who was pulled over for legitimate reasons and later attempted to be detained lawfully because of outstanding warrants for violence against women.

As the trial played out, my own beliefs surrounding the charges were only inured. Officers knew of his violent and extensive criminal background at the time of, and indeed were the reason for, his arrest. He escaped into the car and his actions at that point were unpredictable. Once inside, he could very well have reached for a weapon. If sped off, his vehicle could just as easily turn into a weapon of its own. In that case, Potter’s partner could have been dragged by the vehicle. In sum total, credible expert testimony revealed she would have been fully justified in exercising lethal force against Daunte Wright. On top of all of that, add the split-second decisions that come from engaging with the most ruthless and despicable people in society, and she naturally shouldn’t have been given some leeway anyways.

So, let it be known that I think professionals deserve to live in the gray area. This doesn’t excuse every negligible homicide, but it does provide grace to human beings and the human factor. To think otherwise erases nuance. We also have to view the purpose of detention. If rehabilitation is the goal, does someone like Potter learn her lesson that the accidental taking of life already hasn’t? If the purpose is to remove bad actors from society, do we benefit by having a career officer with a clean record who made a heat-of-the-moment error locked up indefinitely? It’s insane to answer those questions other than just one way.

There is a whole separate article to be written about justice system inequities. If you want to go down the racial path, it’s easy to start asking questions why mutual combatants in Chicago can murder one another and not be charged or how school schooters in Texas can post bail and and party with their family the same day. Why do American patriots find themselves locked up without charges in D.C. jails for ten months and no prospect of imminent release when burning, looting, and murdering BLMers are supported by a major party candidate for vice president? Why do small business owners go to jail for trying to earn a living while other criminals get released in order to reduce prison population and spread during Covid?

But back to Potter. She made a mistake. Should she go to jail? If you think that, then what deadly accident shouldn’t result in incarceration? Aren’t all accidents, by definition, the results of negligence? What’s the alternative, on purpose and intentional? Once you go down the path of making everything culpable negligence, it seems like there is no limiting principle, and that is where I have a few questions for those celebrating the verdict of the Kim Potter trial.

If an airline pilot, and human error results in loss of the aircraft and subsequently the loss of life, should they go to prison for culpable negligence? Nearly every reader is familiar with a story of an airliner crash; they happen so rarely that stories of cataclysm and mayhem spark panic in our own imaginations. Did readers know that an estimated 75% of commercial airliner tragedies are man-made?

Consider, for example, the story of Asiana Airlines Flight 214, a San Francisco-bound flight originating in South Korea in 2013. After making the transpacific flight, the cockpit crew was cleared for a visual approach and so switched off the autopilot features. According to blackbox recorder data, in the span of a few moments pilot conversation switched from being on too high a glide path, being on the right glide path, and being on too low a glide path for their manual descent. Eventually, the aircraft approached the runway with speeds not able to maintain lift; although throttles were boosted before impact, the loss of airspeed resulted in the plane crashing in the seawall preceding the runway. Several people were ejected from the plane as its tail was ripped off. Amazingly, despite the fiery scene and horrific experience, only three people died (although scores more were severely injured).

Despite a thorough investigation, and a clear example of human error, no criminal charges were brought against the pilots? Why not? Excepting different state statutes and the fact that the pilots were foreign nationals, is the circumstance any less demanding

As if that were not bad enough, I also selected this story because of the less-known atrocity committed that day. While en route to the inferno, a firetruck allegedly ran over one of the aforementioned victims who had been thrown from the ruptured aircraft. A description of that encounter is provided by Wikipedia:

“Helmet-recorded images showed that firefighters on the scene saw two of the three victims still alive after being thrown from the plane. The driver of the fire engine ran over them. The firefighter is reported to have said “She got run over… I mean, shit happens, you know?” Afterward the incident was reported by the firefighter to San Francisco Fire Department Chief Joanne M. Hayes-White stating “Chief, there’s a woman there who’s been run over by one of our rigs.” The chief asked if the victim had been crushed, to which the firefighter replied “like someone dropped a pumpkin.”

As with the pilots, no criminal charges were brought against the driver for culpable negligence, despite the driver’s training demanding he not run over civilians in his path.

An equal argument could be made for doctors. Just as the fact that pilot (human) error is responsible for fully three-quarters of all aviation-related deaths, so too does the medical community own a lion’s share of otherwise-preventable deaths. Even before Covid, the medical community was responsible for an estimated 250,000 annual deaths, through a combination of misdiagnoses, bad prescriptions, surgical errors, and other causes related to living with fallible human beings. Medical professionals carry a lot of malpractice insurance, but should they also worry about being placed in an orange jumpsuit?

Consider, for example, the story of a Rhode Island neurosurgeon who operated on the wrong side of a patient’s head. (If you Google this, it’s frightening how often these types of surgeries occur.) After both he and a nurse forgot to write down the side of the head in question, as well as declined to consult a CT scan – and being asked about it by a second nurse – the doctor went off memory in the operating room. After initiating the surgery and at some point realizing the error, the doctor simply completed the required surgical task. Three weeks later, the patient was dead. After an in-house investigation, the news outlet from which I drew this story relayed the following information:

“After reviewing that incident, the state Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline decided there were mitigating circumstances and opted to create a remediation plan for Harrington rather than publicly sanction him, said Dr. Robert Crausman, the board’s chief administrative officer.

Crausman said the board determined Harrington had a good record, was summoned to the hospital for an early morning emergency and was credited with saving the patient’s life.”

A fair person could ask whether the doctor’s actions were less or more egregious than, say, Kim Potter. I would be inclined to say they’re worse. Not only is the doctor working in a safe and controlled environment (the patient isn’t resisting surgery, for one), but he has the time to methodically review the process, whereas Potter was basically reacting to a morally and physically untethered monster. Moreover, the doctor willingly skirted basic understandings of his task. Potter did not. And yet society says he gets a pass and she gets the book?

In both the example of pilots and doctors, these are but two of thousands of examples that could easily be found in the annals of deadly human error. It is true that most police cases are not adjudicated, but in recent memory the Twin Cities has hosted two significant trials involving black suspects and white officers. A fair-minded person could easily arrive at different conclusions than did both juries.

Do the results make communities safer? Is this best for society? If you want to talk about police abuse of power, then let’s talk about Covid rule enforcement. If you want to talk about officers making mistakes while on the line of duty, make sure you’re prepared to go to jail yourself for the next mistake you make.

An inconvenient truth....

Tech and media suppress this

Like they do female pilot accident rates for hours flown

Or drivers for miles driven

And so forth

Where does it say she given a weapon she wasn’t trained on?

There isn’t a police department in the country that is going to give anyone a weapon, lethal or less lethal, and let them go on the street with it. The department and town/city/county/state would be assuming EVERY single bit of liability if something happened.

The taser class is only about a day long, might even be a 4 hour class. Really not much to know. 50,000 volts at low amps. Last for 5 seconds. Takes about 8 AA batteries if I remember correctly.

The only issue I have with it is, apparently, they allow folks to go through the training with getting tased. The “ride” as it’s referred to, isn’t all that bad. I’d take that over OC spray any day of the week.

Not saying she was a good cop won’t argue that

I was authorized to use a Taser. Leaned all about it. How it works. What it does to a person. How it incapacitated a person.

Never fired one. Not sure that’s even in the lesson plans for it.

What nonsense…

She killed someone, yes she did so accidentally, but to claim killings someone accidentally has no criminal culpability is beyond moronic.

Every person killed by a drunk driver was killed accidentally… does that mean Drunk Drivers have no criminal culpability?

This article is absolute trash.

I don’t celebrate the verdict, this entire thing is a tragedy… but to try to argue that a police officer has no legal culpability when they screw up is absolute nonsense.

You don’t get an immunity pass for all of your actions just because you are a police officer, nor should you.

This attempt to say because the person killed wasn’t a nice guy, then this officers actions are okay are just as stupid.

This is a garbage article written by an idiot. If you seriously believe a police officer should have blanket immunity for actions they take as part of their job, you are advocating for a tyrannical state.

If I had done something similar to her act, I don’t think anyone would be surprised at my conviction.

It's not the conviction, which was justified, it's the charges and the subsequent sentencing.....

Hell, the 19 year old Hispanic kid who ran a red light while high on drugs and alcohol that broadsided my brother's car in California back in 2001, killing him, then tried to flee the scene, only got four years in prison.

I got shocked. I didn’t have a choice. I went through the training in ‘04 or ‘05, when they weren’t widely used or issued the way they are now. At the time, the only unit that had them was SWAT and I was going through the units training class. But, we didn’t get shot with it either. Too time consuming and costly.

When they went mainstream in my old department, I was already gone, doing other stuff. I was shocked to learn that they gave officers a choice. But, then again, if they shock someone and he/she has a heart condition and they have a heart attack or worse, that’s a helluva lawsuit, I guess.

You can use the probes as long as there are fresh batteries in the taser. They had a once fired one and placed the probes where they wanted. And then 5 seconds of 50,000 volts. Costly and time consuming, especially if the probes got under your skin with the barbs.

Hats off to your sons agency for doing that. I’m sure that was a good time, shooting your buddies with one. I’m sure the training staff made the decision to have each trooper fire it, although it is not required.

But, agencies will follow the recommendations of the manufacturer, as they usually already have a lesson plan developed. That way, if/when something happens or a lawsuit is filed, as long as the LEO followed the training, the company lawyers will help defend in court.

But, we all got trained in how to use the ASP. We didn’t hit each other with expandable, metal batons.

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