@Jazzhead
Life is all about choices, the cops made a bad choice,
@EdinVA . I
Maybe it's one of those "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" things,but I don't think they made a choice. I honestly think it is a "conditioned depraved indifference to any human life not wearing a cop uniform",thing. I have heard local cops in the rural area where I live flat-out state that "I don't care WHO dies as long as *I* get back home safely.
I have pissed them off by telling them in that case they have no business wearing a uniform with a badge because their SWORN DUTY is to protect the lives on innocents,NOT their own lives or the lives of their fellow cops,and they should quit and get safe jobs as mall cops,or school bus drivers.
It surprised me when there were no repercussions, but I had no choice but to say it. These SOB's. need to wake up.
I considered a job as an LEO for about 15 seconds after I got out of the army,and immediately realized I was not emotionally cut out for that job because I was too aggressive and too used to shooting. Professional LEO's are REQUIRED by the restraints of their job to show restraint,and I couldn't even rent restraint at that time.
If I can do it,so can they,and both them and the society around them would be better for it.
but floyd choice to escalate his situation and fight where there was no fight, just as the rioters, not protestors, have made a choice to break the law and escalate the situation. Every choice has consequences.
Oh,yeah. It's not like this was his first rodeo. He has had physical confrontations with the cops before,and HAD to know he was going to get a beatdown if he resisted. He shares in the fault for his own death,but then again,he was a criminal,a retard,and either/both drunk or high because this is what street criminals do. It defines them like donut runs define cops.
We,as a people,expect better out of cops than we expect out of drunken/high semi-pro criminals,and we have the RIGHT to expect more.
At NO time was any of the cops lives at risk,and the INSTANT they had him handcuffed and on the ground,they SHOULD have had him sitting upright on the ground,and harmless.
The ONLY logical reason for that cop to keep his knee on that man's neck for that long is because he wanted to brutalize him. PERIOD. There can BE no other explanation. The other cops helped him hold the man down due to "monkee see,monkey do" mindsets.
Having said all that,the guilty cop did NOT murder him. Murder is a VERY specific act that requires intent,and he had no intent to kill,only to brutalize and show him "who the boss is."
DEFINITELY guilty of depraved indifference to human life and manslaughter of one degree or another,and I sincerely hope he gets the time he earned.
The cops that helped him,not so much. The one closest to him that heard the dead guy claiming he couldn't breathe tried to get the killer to remove his knee,but he did NOT do his DUTY to INSIST he remove his knee from the man's neck. That failed effort,lame as it was,gives him all the cover he needs to have all the charges against him dropped.
The other two were just there and in no real position to know what was going on,so they shouldn't be charged either.
All 3 of them MUST be fired in order to send the message "If you don't know what is going on,it is your duty to find out!" to the officers currently serving and those yet to serve. There MUST be standards in place to protect the public,just like there are standards in place to protect the police.