Posted on 05/01/2021 4:40:46 AM PDT by Kaslin
For those who think now-former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter should be charged with a crime – let alone murder – I have a simple question: if a surgeon accidentally nicks an artery and kills a patient when she mistakes the scalpel in her hand for a prober, should she be charged with murder, or even manslaughter?
Answer: no.
After all, the surgeon did this thing we all do: she made a mistake. She had no ill intent, let alone malice.
Despite the best intentions and protocols, it sadly happens on occasion, and especially in the heat of the moment during a pressure filled situation like surgery.
The question is, what should happen when it does?
Answer: perhaps the surgeon should lose her job. Perhaps she should be sued civilly for money damages for her negligence.
But what should not happen?
Answer: the surgeon should not go to jail. She is not a criminal. She is, at most, negligent.
Yet that is what our blood thirsty society is now doing with Kim Potter, the veteran Brooklyn Center police officer who accidentally shot Daunte Wright when trying to make an otherwise lawful arrest that quickly went awry when Wright broke the law by forcibly resisting.
Because there is a body camera, the facts are pretty clear.
It was just before 2:00 pm on an otherwise boring Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn Center, a Minneapolis suburb that is about as diverse and middle class as anywhere in America.
Brooklyn Center has 32,000 residents who are roughly 38% white, 27% Black, 18% Asian, and 13% Hispanic. Its Black mayor, Mike Elliott, emigrated from Liberia as a child, and the town has many immigrants from Laos, Vietnam, and West Africa.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Simple test: If department protocols were followed, it’s civil.
Does department protocols allow for shooting unarmed suspects who are not threatening the life or safety of the officer or others?
If I decide to target practice in my back yard and one round goes astray and kills my neighbor you don't think I'm going to get charged with a crime?
It depends.
Is shooting in your property unlawful? Would a reasonable person see it as criminal?
Do you have a proper backstop/ precautions to mitigate risk?..etc.
The fact is this case is a “heat of the moment” situation.
Many states have “mistake of fact” exceptions to excuse what otherwise may be crime.
The facts surrounding the incident will determine her level of culpability.
I see some cops wearing tasers on the same side as their service weapon.
Her declaration of intent to deploy a taste may under law be a critical factor in the final outcome.
Negligent or mistaken? If prosecuted a jury will get to decide, as it should be.
As a law enforcement officer, you don’t carry deadly force (handgun) on the same side of your duty belt as you do the taser. Even in a stressful encounter you don’t mistakenly grab a strong-side weapon (handgun) with your weak-side (non-lethal) hand. You’d have to pull the gun with the wrong hand. Try it sometime. IMHO, the handgun was already out and being presented as a threat to the suspect, who was having none of it, and panicked shot(s) followed. Any body-cam footage available? A civil suit is legit as far as I’m concerned. I’d implicitly obey a female officer, since an attempted wrestling match very likely will get you shot, not cuffed on the ground.
She the right weapon. She made no mistake at all.
Still waking up... She had the RIGHT weapon.
One common factor in all departments is that deadly force is not appropriate when the suspect is unarmed and when the suspect is not presenting a threat to the life and safety of the office or others. Wright was unarmed and did not pose a threat. Potter recognized that because she was supposedly going with her taser and not her pistol. But when you negligence results in a mistake that takes another life then criminal charges are warranted, police officer or no.
Maybe I’m missing something. Is there any part of this story I should NOT be celebrating?
Not the same at all.
There’s way too much logic and truth in this article for Democrats and others who just want to lynch another police officer.
BTW:
Trevon Martin was not murdered.
Michael Brown was not murdered.
Breonna Taylor was not murdered.
George Floyd was not murdered.
When a surgeon screws up, there is malpractice insurance that covers civil damages. That insurance is paid for by the surgeon.
When Law Enforcement screws up, is there malpractice insurance paid for by the officer, or do local taxpayers end up footing the bill?
Malpractice not murder. Plus forty years of America blindly enabling vexatious litigation.
What other country in the world can’t up with the need to put disclaimers on hot coffee when it’s being served hot, to warn the purposeful hot coffee drinker of the effects of spillage?
The difference appears to be that too many people just accept the normality of any other professional being accountable for even the screwups of their customers that they had zero control over... but military and law enforcement oughtn’t to be subject to litigation even in the event of a serious, avoidable screw up that is ENTIRELY their own fault.
Simple answer: go back to first principles.
If a professional screws up without prompting and someone gets badly injured or dies, and that harm was only inflicted as a consequence of their own lack of judgement/control - obstinacy, ignorance, negligence, drunkenness or rage - they should be held to account for malpractice.
Otherwise why call them professionals? A professional should know what they’re doing.
If a coffee drinker pours hot coffee over their groin or knocks a waitress over, or if a cop shoot s an armed and aggressive suspect, their professional liabilities should be limited.
It’s quite simple. Cops can and should be able to use pindown techniques but they should also know how far to go with it especially where a nonaggressive and almost unconscious suspect is subdued.
Anyone who disputes this should try applying their reasoning to anaesthetists and see how stupid “carte blanche” looks.
If all the possibilities of the things that can go wrong in a delicate surgery is fully explained to the patient and the patient elects to go ahead and have the surgery signing a document electing and consenting to having the surgery understanding the risks, then nothing should happen to the surgeon.
Every US citizen should sign a similar document consenting and understanding that if you go out and commit a crime there is a possiblity you will be shot by the police even if you are are unarmed. Then if you commit a crime you gave your consent to be shot.
Ignorance of the law is no defense?
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