GUILTY MN - Daunte Wright, 20, fatally shot by police during traffic stop, Brooklyn Center, Apr 2021 #2

[887sMtreme]

Snipped for focus

And even then our armed police still occasionally get it wrong and fatally shoot a suspect.

Exactly something like this happened in my county’s only town of any size, though it’s quite small. It has its own small police force. Under George W. Bush, they were given surplus military vehicles and weapons more suited to war than law enforcement.

Several years ago, a mentally ill, elderly African-American man holed himself up in a rickety house one early morning in the historic district, two blocks from the courthouse. He was afraid his family wanted him taken to an “insane asylum.” He had a shotgun with which he threatened to shoot anyone who tried to apprehend him.

The cops neglected to inform the school district of this situation, so kids were walking to school or waiting at bus stops as the police rolled an armored vehicle up in front of the house, blocking the road. Police armed with their new AR-15s scattered around the bushes flanking the house and a guy with a megaphone started trying to talk the old man out.

Long story short, the old man was killed. Two police officers were wounded. The entire town was horrified. There is a new police chief now and all that equipment was dumped or sold. The town’s emphasis is on de-escalation and community outreach now. Violent crime has gone down dramatically. But all police officers still carry handguns.

 

[worm]

And even then our armed police still occasionally get it wrong and fatally shoot a suspect. In a split second incident they have to make a call and training and instinct take over and afterwards they find out that the circumstances weren't what they thought they were but it's much less likely to be the wrong outcome the majority of the time.
Personally I am glad that our standard officers in the UK aren't armed and I can't ever imagine it being normal here but as pointed out upthread,our citizens aren't armed either (the normal everyday ones anyway).
We do have a massive knife crime problem here instead of our bigger cities though,its just a different kind of threat I guess.
My nephew is a police officer and as I said,I am glad he isn't armed as standard.

Are there any kind of restrictions on buying knives there? I got 2 in the mail just last week and grew up at a time when teens could find illegal “switchblade” knives in local gas stations and trade (flea) markets. Here in the south US, guns are almost as easy to obtain.

 

[887sMtreme]

Interesting, I was just mulling this over yesterday, and thought, perhaps police would consider being disarmed if there were an automatic death penalty sentence given for someone who was found guilty of shooting and killing an officer, and an automatic LWOP for anyone guilty of shooting and injuring an officer. Moo.

The murder rate in US states that have a death penalty is consistently higher than in those without a death penalty. While there can be many reasons for that, one of which is that states with higher murder rates might be less inclined to do away with the death penalty, I’m not confident about the deterrence an automatic death penalty would provide for someone bent on killing a police officer. When you consider that shooting an officer often occurs without premeditation, in the heat of the moment, I would imagine the deterrence would be even less than that in other types of murder. As to automatic LWOP for a nonlethal shooting of an officer, I can’t imagine that would have a much different effect.

It’s an interesting topic for exploration, though. Thanks for bringing it up.

 

[Kiranerys]

Are there any kind of restrictions on buying knives there? I got 2 in the mail just last week and grew up at a time when teens could find illegal “switchblade” knives in local gas stations and trade (flea) markets. Here in the south US, guns are almost as easy to obtain.

In all honesty it's not something I have ever looked into beyond the basic knowledge that knives of any kind,including domestic cutlery are not able to be purchased over the counter by anyone under 16 and there are certain knives that are illegal to own. I believe carry wise there's a blade length limit which is not much longer than a penknife but I will have a Google and check.
As of the 28th November, there have been 29 teenagers killed just in London by stabbing this year. I am trying to find accurate figures for all knife related deaths and crimes. I will be back!

 

[turaj]

While I agree with the verdict the unintended consequences are as expected... another completely unbelievable weekend of car jackings, home invasions and other crimes in the Twin Cities. The criminals (thugs) are empowered as they can be fairly certain that there are not enough officers out there to stop them or at least that want to take the risk to stop them. Sad situation that I assume plays out all over the country these days.

 

[worm]

In all honesty it's not something I have ever looked into beyond the basic knowledge that knives of any kind,including domestic cutlery are not able to be purchased over the counter by anyone under 16 and there are certain knives that are illegal to own. I believe carry wise there's a blade length limit which is not much longer than a penknife but I will have a Google and check.
As of the 28th November, there have been 29 teenagers killed just in London by stabbing this year. I am trying to find accurate figures for all knife related deaths and crimes. I will be back!

Thanks for the info and reply. This is interesting since knives really seem to be a non issue here. There may be some limits that I’m not aware of but I carry a knife always, more as a tool than anything else. Unless a public building or event has searches/metal detectors people usually have them. Students aren’t allowed to have them in schools for obvious reasons but it’s really loose.

 

[887sMtreme]

Thanks for the info and reply. This is interesting since knives really seem to be a non issue here. There may be some limits that I’m not aware of but I carry a knife always, more as a tool than anything else. Unless a public building or event has searches/metal detectors people usually have them. Students aren’t allowed to have them in schools for obvious reasons but it’s really loose.

Yup. I keep a fairly large pen knife in the glove compartment of my car. I use it mostly for cutting up cardboard boxes at the landfill. They have to be flat or they will taze you and take away your right to use the town bike path for a year. It’s brutal. But no problem with the knife.

 

[Marysmith]

I almost think she is relieved. I also think she is very medicated and slightly out of touch with reality. In some way I think she saw this coming.

Medicated makes sense actually…

 

[Kiranerys]

A couple of links

Selling, buying and carrying knives

Knife Crime Statistics | The Ben Kinsella Trust

It seems like every other day sometimes that I read about another stabbing and its mostly kids killing kids

 

[Apollo]

Medicated makes sense actually…

If she is/was medicated, that may explain that big smile on her booking photo. Hope that doesn't come back to bite her.

I read today that the two biggest mitigating factors that the judge will consider is her prior criminal history (she has none) and how remorseful she is. The defense will undoubtedly say her remorse both after the shooting, and while she testified, is clear.
However, I wouldn't be surprised if the prosecution puts up her smiley booking photo and says something to the effect: 'Is this the look of someone who's remorseful after just being found guilty of recklessly shooting someone and ending his life?'

 

[tara83]

If she is/was medicated, that may explain that big smile on her booking photo. Hope that doesn't come back to bite her.

I read today that the two biggest mitigating factors that the judge will consider is her prior criminal history (she has none) and how remorseful she is. The defense will undoubtedly say her remorse both after the shooting, and while she testified, is clear.
However, I wouldn't be surprised if the prosecution puts up her smiley booking photo and says something to the effect: 'Is this the look of someone who's remorseful after just being found guilty of recklessly shooting someone and ending his life?'

Or crying more about going to jail right after shooting him instead of being concerned about the actual victim.

 

[Apollo]

Or crying more about going to jail right after shooting him instead of being concerned about the actual victim.

Yes---I'm sure the prosecution is going to bring that up too. I'm sure she is in fact remorseful but her actions and her smiley facial expression aren't going to help her at sentencing.

 

[Kaley Smith]

I'm very surprised she was found guilty on both counts. If I were a young person, I would think twice about entering a profession where one mistake would land me in jail for years and years. In fact, I wouldn't do it. You can say it was far more than just an error, but there was certainly no intent behind it.

 

[turaj]

Yes---I'm sure the prosecution is going to bring that up too. I'm sure she is in fact remorseful but her actions and her smiley facial expression aren't going to help her at sentencing.

I think the mitigating factors in her favor for sentencing will have no impact given the things the State will use such as the reckless behavior that potentially could have killed others including the passenger and the elderly couple. I see Judge Chu following the book (she has a reputation here in the legal community for that) and going with probably close to minimum recommended sentence...maybe a couple of years over minimum. Her past history etc. will serve her well in terms of potentially getting out early. I don't see her a danger to society in general...more to herself. I see any arguing for sentence deviations by the defense as a waste of time..but they have to do it. Hope Gray has pulled himself together after the loss.

 

[Tortoise]

I do agree that she should have been prosecuted. I can't say whether or not I agree with these specific verdicts because I don't know enough about the differences in the crimes she was charged with, but I agree that she should have been found guilty of some sort of manslaughter by neglect.

I've followed several cases over the years - a young adult anorexic man in England who starved himself to death in his family home and refused to let his mother and grandmother call the doctor - they were both given terms of imprisonment; drivers who caused deaths because they were texting and not paying attention to the road; the grandfather who dangled his baby granddaughter over the side of the cruise ship and dropped her - none of them had intent to kill but owed a duty of care, a standard of behavior expected when in a situation that is dangerous to take care to prevent loss of life. I expect a fully trained police officer with a lethal weapon to always be in complete charge of what they are doing and to double check. Accident doesn't cut it for me, there must be accountability with firearms. I would expect it from an ordinary citizen and I expect even more from a trained police officer. It's not about intent, it's about taking a life through a failure to be careful, when the consequences of and risk of mistake is irreversible. He didn't only lose his life, as if that weren't bad enough, his loved ones lost his life too. I think she was reckless given the possibilities of what she knew could have been in her hand if she had made an error.

 

[Kaley Smith]

True. Like I said at one point, I would give her two years. Prison is not the only punishment, and she's had lots of that... loss of career, respect, peace of mind, etc. Wouldn't she also lose her pension? OK, she didn't lose her life like Dante did, but she lost her life as she knew it, her good life. Gone too. It's a tragedy all around.

 

[887sMtreme]

Respectfully snipped for brevity

I do agree that she should have been prosecuted. I can't say whether or not I agree with these specific verdicts because I don't know enough about the differences in the crimes she was charged with, but I agree that she should have been found guilty of some sort of manslaughter by neglect.

I wish we could add stars to our likes. I’d give you 5 out of 5 for this post.

 

[887sMtreme]

Respectfully snipped for brevity

I do agree that she should have been prosecuted. I can't say whether or not I agree with these specific verdicts because I don't know enough about the differences in the crimes she was charged with, but I agree that she should have been found guilty of some sort of manslaughter by neglect.

I wish we could add stars to our likes. I’d give you 5 out of 5 for this post.

 

[sds71]

Juror in the Kim Potter trial opens up about guilty verdict | kare11.com

 

[Apollo]

Juror in the Kim Potter trial opens up about guilty verdict | kare11.com

Thanks for posting this. It's interesting that the jurors focused in on the very same points that we focused on here while discussing the case.

For example, how Potter never told Dr. Miller she saw "a look of fear" on her partner's face like she said during her testimony and how poorly we felt the defense did during their presentation.