You may think that I am hard after my post asking if it right for us to ctitisize the Police after they shoot someone. However you will remember that I made a point on more than one occasion that Police Officers are paid professionals. So you should expect them to do a professional job and face disciplinary action when they overstep the mark.
You may have also seen the latest case of a black man whose life was killed by a white Police Officer (notice I use the word killed).
If you watch the video of the struggle that resulted in this an losing his life you might come to several conclusions.
- It might Be that you are like my Wife and decide that the man was trying to lift his shirt up and put his hands up.
- It might be that you are like me and your initial thoughts are that he was trying to stop the Officer to the front of him getting hold of his hands. I also can’t decide whether this coincides with the Officer under scrutiny putting his hands around the mans neck from behind.
As it happens there is such a thing as Justifiable and Excusable Homicide (you will see that I didn’t realise that when I started writing this post by reading what I actually post before I looked the definition up). For this reason I have no opinion on the verdict not to indict the Officer in question with charges.
You should let me know what you think though by commenting below. Do you agree with the decision or do you think he should face trial…and why.
It is correct that many suspected criminals complain of not being able to breath and if you give them the benefit of the doubt quite a few will try to run away…especially after resisting arrest which you may say that he was doing.
Regardless: you should expect an Officer to be held accountable for his actions when things go wrong.
My thoughts are with the family and friends of the deceased.
This is what I wrote before I actually read the legal definition of Homicide
Whatever you decide, the Coroner who investigated the killing decided that his death was due to Homicide. What you may not believe is that although the coroner ruled his death a homicide a Grand Jury have decided that the Officer should not face charges.I mentioned earlier that you should expect the Police protecting us to be brought to account when things go wrong. This for me is a prime example of that not happening. It seems to me that the Grand Jury are acting on behalf of a Trial jury and finding him not guilty.
You would think that a Coroner’s verdict of homicide is in enough to indict the Officer but that is not the case given that the legal definition of Homicide is .
While I don’t think that he should have resisted, it’s no reason to be killed. That officer should have, in the very least, some sort of discipline for using a banned hold and unnecessarily causing a death. The arguments that “Eric was able to shout so he could breathe” is easily countered by the fact that the man bloody died. Was he so bent on proving the point that he was having trouble breathing that he killed himself? Anyway, I have friends and family members that are good police and it concerns me that they could be in even more danger than normal because of this kind of behavior from a minority group of bad officers. A shame all around.
Hi Bern,
Thanks for your reply. I must admit that I haven’t heard any of the arguments as this wasn’t really news in the UK and I didn’t hear anything about it after the day of the incident. I gather from your IP address that you are somewhere in the US so that means that these issues effect you over the pond than they do us Brits.
After watching the full video I think he was fully justified in taking him to the ground. He was obviously resisting arrest and there was/is nothing wrong with taking a suspect to the ground if they do not comply with instructions aimed at taking them into custody.
To be honest I am trained in restraint techniques that I would like to see the Police use but only once have I ever seen a Police officer use pressure points to gain control of a suspect.
I’m not sure if I put it in the post but can you imagine the number of suspects that got free if every officer relaxed their grip or changed their tactics if their suspect said “I can’t breathe”? It would be the standard argument amongst criminals who wanted to break a grip or hold.
I should also point out that my points of view are rarely popular and disagreements are common. I am very proud to say though that I have never let this effect my relationships with people. The people that disagree with my points of view the most are my clients. They are intelligent enough though to realise that people can have differing points of view and not have to let it effect their relationship.
Thanks again for your reply 🙂
John