Quote:
Originally Posted by rickair7777
It will blow over. This happens about every 20 years like clockwork.
It's aggravated because uncle sugar is forcing and paying people to sit home, and they have nothing better to do.
Compared to past events, there's little to complain about here. Felon on drugs gets unjustly killed by cop. Cop (+ 3 more) fired the next business day. Cop arrested and charged with murder by the end of the week. Other three are under criminal investigation. Wheels are turning pretty fast on this one. If the AG rushes it, the case will likely fail in court due to due process or sloppy detective work.
Except times have changed.
Cop gets a good lawyer and there’s no way he’s convicted of murder. That’s why the backup manslaughter charge.
And third degree murder probably wouldn’t have been enough to quell the riots anyway. So there is more rioting with the manslaughter verdict.
He gets a REAL good lawyer and he beats the manslaughter charge.
The victim apparently was on fentanyl which is known to cause respiratory arrest and methamphetamines which causes cardiac arrhythmias and he had a cardio respiratory arrest... Who is to say that didn’t cause it? Yada - yada. Beyond a reasonable doubt... Yada-yada. Presumption of innocence... Yada yada.
Not to mention the guy who has taken over prosecution graduated from a mediocre law school 30 years ago, practiced civil rights law for three years, and has been either a politician or party hack ever since, with no actual prosecutorial experience to speak of.
If the cop gets off - assuming they can even find an impartial jury to empanel with all the loudmouth politicians tainting the jury pool- all H€|| breaks loose. And if - far more likely - there’s a hung jury, it’ll REALLY break loose.
And then we get to wash, rinse, and repeat ad nauseum.
and of course the three other cops who were summarily fired are going to have to be judged not in the court of public opinion but by the standards specified in the union contract which almost certainly wasn’t followed by the mayor in his push to do something to show he cared.
All three getting their old jobs back (or being paid an ‘undisclosed amount’ to just go away and become cops elsewhere) is a very real possibility.
This case isn’t the slam dunk legally that most people appear to think it is and it’s very likely to get far uglier before it gets any better, IMHO.