Quote: (10-11-2017 11:39 PM)puckerman Wrote:
I am pleasantly surprised that he was fired. I suspect it will be appealed though.
Every state should set up an independent committee with the absolute power to suspend and fire cops.
Once I saw the video, I hesitantly expected him to either resign or be fired. It's one of those tough cases, because he was technically "following orders," but the optics could hardly be worse if he'd shot the nurse.
It was perfectly reasonable to predict that he wouldn't be fired, because the police have proven time and time again that they have a culture of believing that they are above the law.
In this case, I see him of just another product of that culture, as there are no shortage of cops that routinely trample over people's legal rights and basic human decency. Most of those cops just haven't been caught on camera yet. And most probably lack the self-awareness to even know when they've mentally crossed the line into believing that any action they take is justified, because after all, they are the
good guys.
It's his own damn fault, however, because when he swore an oath to uphold various constitutions and laws, it was his obligation to commit himself to not becoming one of the bad guys and give himself frequent ego checks.
However, most cops aren't philosophers with strongly developed self-assessment skills.
The police have very broad powers to detail people for many reasons and in many cases, those people are never actually charged with a crime or formally arrested.
A part of me wants to suggest that arresting or detaining someone with pressing charges that aren't immediately thrown out by a judge should automatically result in a charge of assault and/or false imprisonment, but obviously that would needlessly handcuff the police in their ability to protect us.
But there needs to be some sort of consequence when the police arrest someone without justification.