Whoever manages ABC social media should read the replies to this tweet.
KevinC
2731
At least the article linked in the tweet (and is visible in preview when viewing via Twitter) follows that guideline and explicitly states an officer shot a 16 year old. But yeah, enough with the ass covering language.
Improved headline:
“Cops Kill Yet Another Kid”
Unspecified charges likely coming this week today for that suburban Minnesota cop who murdered a 20 year old kid.
Washington County is an affluent exurban county (I grew up there! It’s rich and white as fuck!), not the county Brooklyn Center (where the murder happened) is in.
KevinC
2734
Good. There should be consequences for killing someone like that, even if you believe it was just an accident. Especially since such an accident could only result from gross negligence.
Alstein
2735
to me, the most appropiate charge is involuntary manslaughter, perhaps reckless homicide.
Either of those result in jail time, I’d allow the cop to plea down to reckless homicide
Timex
2736
The thing is, even if you believe the cop did nothing wrong, they fired a weapon and killed a person, who everyone agrees shouldn’t have been killed.
That merits charges, and a trial. Going to trial doesn’t mean you are guilty, but the victim deserves for it to be investigated and presented to a jury.
In the US it means you have a 72% chance of being found guilty. Prosecutors are expensive and scarce government resources so they don’t take something to trial because it deserves to be investigated and mulled over by a jury. They take things to trial because they think they can win.
Timex
2738
Sure, this is fair enough.
Glad that story at least explains the jurisdiction question.
Yeah, it can be hugely confusing, because every state has their own (often different) names for various crimes, and descriptions/definitions that can vary in very small ways.
Unless you’re a cop. And especially if the victim isn’t a white dude.
Do you have stats on that? The stat I cited was the overall conviction rate for criminal cases that go to trial. I haven’t seen any stats on whether juries are lenient on cops, I just assumed that due to qualified immunity they weren’t even being charged.
Thanks. Exactly what I was going to reply with.
ShivaX
2747
Don’t forget in cases like this the prosecution basically doesn’t have any option but to prosecute.
Look at how many instances like this that don’t cause a national movement don’t get prosecuted at all.
Now think of all those instances that no one ever even heard about.
Left to their own devices they almost never take these things to court. It’s one of the major complaints about the justice system. DA’s have to work closely with PDs and asking them to also prosecute them is a giant conflict of interest that almost always breaks in favor of the police.
Nesrie
2748
It’s hard to get anyone to believe anything without recorded footage. We need built in cameras we can turn on by blinking.
