How can u train rookie cops out in the field if you’re no longer used to being out in the field? She’s going out there with rookie cops and training them on the job.
Are you on the fence when drunk drivers are convicted of involuntary manslaughter when they kill innocent people because they decide to drive under the influence? What Potter did falls into a similar category. Her mistake took the life of another human being and simply losing her career isn’t suitable punishment. She needs to spend time in jail for it. Regardless of what anyone thinks about Daunte Wright, his parents now have to bury their child, and that’s something no parent should ever have to do.
The difference is it falls under the category of manslaughter instead of murder unless there is a way to prove Potter meant to shoot him in that moment. She still deserves to be convicted of manslaughter and spend time in prison for killing Wright.
Do we know she is the one usually going out and training them? They usually have a training officer that they are assigned to who is still in the field. I don't know what the case is here but usually the head of training is not the one who goes into the field a lot.
I don't think this is a good analogy because te drunk driver made a conscious decision to drink and to drive which ups their culpability. Not saying this person does not deserve jail time I am actually on the fence about that but its not a good correlation.
she already ruined the potential to argue this, but she could have claimed that she fired her gun b/c she feared that wright was going for his gun. again, he was already up for armed robbery and was known to carry a gun on him, even after he was out on parole and part of the condition of his parole was that he couldnt carry a gun, but he did anyway. she and the other officers would be justified in claiming they were in fear for their lives in that moment. im not understanding why this dude was even allowed to be on the streets. he committed armed robbery and assaulted a woman in her own apartment then was caught with a gun in violation of his parole. he should be have been in jail.
She was actively training 1 of the rookie cops involved in the stop. She was just a regular field training officer.
I think the comparison to drunk driving is different. Pulling out her gun is unfortunately a necessary part of the job. The question for me is about the F-up when she pulled the trigger. I say this with an self-professed almost irrational disdain for the police. I've had plenty of bad experiences with them.
Never said they weren't incompetent. I think most cops are incompetent because they are poorly trained by other poorly trained people. The question for me is if they were criminally incompetent. The victim having a prior history of gun possession and running away from the police that was know during the incident factors into the decision a lot for me. He wasn't just getting arrested for using a fake 20 dollar bill or just smarting off to the cops.
If a suspect is running towards his car and does not have a history at all, besides this one incident, would you hold her criminally negligent? I don't understand why the individual's history matters to establish what type of charges (if any) should be brought for on this cop. So far what we know is that she accidentally killed man that had a criminal history, however, his criminal history does not justify her making a mistake if all she was trying to do was taze him. Mistakes happen, sure, but that doesn't mean there are no consequences for making that mistake. The standard should be the same across the board. If we are going to dissect the victim's history then let's go ahead and dissect her history as well. I'd like for individuals to go look at her history of social media posts, I'd like for anyone that knows her to be interviewed, and let's see if she had an history of being a racist.
Potter messed up and took another human being’s life. That’s involuntary manslaughter and should result in jail time for her.
The problem with her now coming out and changing her story in that way is "were you lying then or are you lying now?" It will open up more questions regarding why did she pull her firearm in the first place, which is an acknowledgement that use of lethal force could be needed, and then why did she use the language that she did as just yelling "taser! Taser! Taser!" Could've confused even the other LEO what she was meaning.
Police officers should be held to a higher standard than this. Unless she saw the weapon, or Wright charged at her, she should have no grounds to say she feared for her life. I agree with you here, but that’s an entirely different problem with our legal system.
I don't think the victim's gun possession charge was part of the decision making process at the moment. Again it really does matter what her intentions were at the time, not trying to rationalize it after the fact. She was a senior officer at the scene, and based on her own assessment of the situation she thought pulling out a taser was appropriate action. There were also two other officers on the scene, I don't think they thought their life was in danger from the suspect attempting to run away, or else more guns would have been pulled and fired. She remain the only one to make the conscious decision to pull out a taser.
Drunk drivers don’t always mean to kill other drivers when they get behind the wheel under the influence. That’s why they typically get convicted of involuntary manslaughter when they kill someone in that situation. Potter made a poor choice to mistake her gun for a taser, and she accidentally killed another human being because of it. She, too, deserves to be tried and convicted on involuntary manslaughter.
in general i would agree, but i think this case is different b/c of the history of wright and the fact that he broke away while she was cuffing and jumped back in his car. in that moment i think it would be plausible to assume that he had a gun in his car and could have been going for it. even if not, based on his history i think it would not be out of line to assume that he would try to run over cops or use his car as a weapon to escape. like i said though, the cop already ruined her chance to make that argument with her claim that she thought it was a taser (which i really dont believe).
Based on what we currently know, Potter accidentally killed another human being. That’s involuntary manslaughter, and it isn’t difficult to figure out. If you want to say her prison sentence shouldn’t be as harsh as a drunk driver that kills someone when driving under the influence, fine. She still deserves to spend time in prison for accidentally killing another human being.
agree. i have to wonder if she spoke to a lawyer before claiming that she thought it was a taser. yeah - i watched the video and as is usually the case in these type of incidents, everything happens so quickly. like i said, i do think in this case and with this particular person one could argue that lethal force was justified, but now she cant argue that. yelling "taser, taser, taser" doesnt really make sense, but if she had followed my line of defense she could have claimed that she was yelling for another officer to use their taser so she would not have to fire her gun.
