Quote:
Originally Posted by calgaryblood
And dissentowner is a police officer? Ugh.
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And this is why in the US, fewer and fewer people trust police. While I'd imagine at least 80% of officers are in it for all the right reasons, when those good officers refuse to bring these obviously awful officers to justice, to actually punish them for excessive use of force and other unethical methods of policing, it blurs the line between "good cop" and "bad cop." Are you really a "good cop" if you look the other way when the "bad cop" is doing something blatantly wrong?
We're so quick to want all Muslims to denounce the actions of ISIS/Al Qaeda, but we're not so concerned about police officers denouncing the actions of those among their ranks who abuse their power. The work police do is very important, and there's no way on earth I would do it. But they're also give the responsibility to take life if necessary--therefore they need to be held to a higher standard. That is a responsibility that not even the President of the United States holds--there need to be standards set for police, and they need to be strictly enforced. Maybe then people would trust police again.
This is a pretty open and shut case of excessive use of force. There are situations with grey area--and then there's this. The officer was attempting to shoot an unarmed autistic man, missed and hit the man's unarmed caretaker, who was laying on his back on the ground with his hands in full view. There is no grey area here. This officer should never be on the streets again, if he can't handle a situation such as this without going for the trigger.