The Briefing Room
General Category => Editorial/Opinion/Blogs => Topic started by: mystery-ak on May 01, 2021, 01:41:41 pm
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May 1, 2021
Don’t Confuse an Accident with a Crime
By Bill Choslovsky
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?
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/05/dont_confuse_an_accident_with_a_crime.html
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Penalties need to be imposed on those wielding the pointy-end of the law on the retail level to curb real abuses and cull the incompetents.
So when cops exceed their Fourth Amend authority and conduct illegal searches, it is not sufficient that the evidence merely be discarded and the charges dismissed against the accused. The wrongly performing cop's actions and his history need to be reviewed for possible patterns of error, and he should be fined and/or dismissed accordingly. If necessary, the entire police department might need retraining.
When it comes to fools "mistakenly" groping their firearms rather than their tasers, and this is not the first time it's been alleged that the cop made such a lethal "mistake", at the minimum the offending officer needs to be removed from armed interface with the public. Off to the clerical staff she goes. The difference in handle shape and weights and the simple location of the weapons on the officer's body are all indications that they're grabbing the wrong tool, and that they can ignore these signals and simply habitually draw the firearm and shoot it without thought indicates that the officer should not be in the field, and probably should not be on the force.
And, yeah, she should be liable to a civil lawsuit akin to a medical malpractice suits incompetent doctors are exposed to.
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There are, however, cases where a mistake is a crime: many states have statutes criminalizing negligent homicide.