04-09-2015, 09:39 AM
(04-09-2015, 06:09 AM)Duchess Wrote: The shooter isn't the only guilty party. Him and his attorney spent 2 days spinning the story that he feared for his life and had no choice but to shoot. They only stopped when the video came to light.
Yeah, it's troubling that video is sometimes required in order to get to the truth of what happened, even with multiple officers on the scene at various time. Body cams for all cops -- sooner than later -- that's what I wanna see.
Anyway, I agree with you -- if other officers conspired to create a false narrative and cover up the murder, they should face appropriate charges too.
And, I completely understand citizens protesting what they see as a system of policing that enables such conduct; conduct that was only exposed because a community member happened to stumble upon the scene with a recorder.
Sure, swift arrest and prosecution of the shooting officer is appropriate and most everybody seems to recognize that it was only the right thing for the Mayor and the Chief to do. The video was out in the public eye already when that appropriate action was taken -- anything less than arrest on murder charges would have been viewed as career-ending incompetence by a lot of people, myself included.
I agree with protestors who assert that those appropriate actions would not likely have occurred without the witness' video; that the system requires investigation to ensure it doesn't enable such brutality when there's no one with a camera around.