Pacfanweb said:Well, yeah. However, what would you have them do? They had to arrest the guy. He wasn't cooperating. He was under the influence...of what, they didn't know at the time. There was no "talking him down".Civilized said:Pacfanweb said:
All true.
And unfortunately, police being the human beings they are, they screw up once in awhile. And given what they deal with on a daily basis, sometimes their screw ups end up like this. Sometimes the police are the ones who are killed or injured.
As you say, it's the nature of the job. We can always try and find ways in which police can do better, and we probably should....but the bottom line is, human beings are still human beings. And they are going to screw up occasionally. While we should always try and keep that to a minimum, the truth of the matter is, it's something we simply have to accept, given the nature of the job.
Based on what you've said about this topic I think me and you are largely on the same page about arresting officer's fate.
I don't think he murdered George Floyd. I do think Floyd was under the influence. I don't think the amounts of drugs in his system would have been fatal by themselves. I do think the officer was negligent, maybe criminally, and he'll likely pay a price for that.
I don't envy police officers' jobs, the risks they take, and the snap judgments they are tasked with making. I do think we do them a disservice by not providing superior training regarding how to keep them out of situations like these officers found themselves in, and how to de-escalate them when they're in them.
It's way easier to prevent this outcome when you're not ever physically engaged with a suspect in the first place. With police encounters and outcomes, an ounce of prevention is worth a damn metric ton of cure.
They're trained to manhandle folks when necessary. I think it was necessary here. Not to the "kneeling on his neck" level of "necessary", but necessary. I think it's just bad luck that they took down a guy who had heart disease, was a heavy drug user, was high on drugs at the time, and was basically a walking, ticking time bomb for a heart attack. And then compounded the perception of what they were doing with the "knee on the neck" videos.
People immediately jumped on that and assumed Floyd was choked by that.
They are wrong. But you can't take back all the incorrect reporting, riots, people killed in riots, and unrest that has resulted. It's a sad situation all around, really.
Agree. Trying to figure out what the officers were supposed to do to not physically engage the suspect.
"Sir, would you mind if we arrest for passing counterfeit bills?
You do?
Awe shucks, nevermind. Have a nice day sir."