This might not be the most popular take but...
Daunte Wright should be alive. He's dead because he was dumb and a cop was dumb and Minnesota law is dumb. Yes, he had an outstanding warrant. The warrant was bullshit. He was wanted for POSSESSING a firearm. That's it. Not committing a crime with a firearm, not recklessly using a firearm, just POSSESSING a firearm. It was a warrant for a misdemeanor.
He shouldn't have resisted. But he did.
The cop shouldn't have pulled the wrong weapon. But she did.
The officer in question, is guilty of negligent homicide.
The female officer fucked up on a massive scale.
She probably won't even get a slap on the wrist.
Wright was acting like a complete dumbass and the officer was acting like a dumbass as well.
It is clear this event was not about racism.
That's clear nearly every damn time, doesn't matter. From some articles about it:
"This is murder. This is white supremacy. Who’s going to stand up for our ancestors who built this land but are still kept down?" said Jonathan Mason, a community activist.
I love the phrase, we built this land. Theres this magical middle ground where it's either "this land is 100% indian, all others fuck off" or "its 100% black and asian, all others fuck off". I wish we could exploit this dissonance somehow.
So did modern-day Native Americans.
Really good reply, you took my semi incoherent ramblings and gave it a great core.
Black people have benefitted more from American slavery than almost any other group (just look at most of Africa if you don't believe me.)
I disagree.
What I think will happen is that Hennepin County prosecutor will bring charges and lean VERY hard on the defense to concede guilty on negligent homicide for a reduced sentence.
Hmm
Women have not faced consequences for their actions in a court of law for some time.
You really think they will start now?
I think they have to for budget reasons.
The evidence for a wrongful death civil case is overwhelming, I think the city and county will HAVE to go for charges to absolve themselves of some of that liability.
In a situation this stupid, the conversation shifts from the chief to the city's leadership and their insurance provider, and becomes very much a "you will do it or your coverage is terminated" conversation.
She won't be prosecuted because of qualified immunity. From what I can see the video evidence supports this to apply to this situation since there is no clear malice in the situation with her documented action during and after the pulling the gun. This falls more into a training and procedure issue for pulling and using tasers in intense situations that falls on the city and police department.
There have been several incidents in the past ten years where cops have pulled guns instead of tasers and accidently shot people and not get criminal charged for it. The prosecutors wouldn't get past the first motions of dismissal because of the current established standards nationally on this kind of issue.
Yes the absolute legal definition only applies to civil cases but the argument can be used to defend officers in criminal cases. I remember reading about it being used as an argument a long time ago in a criminal case against a cop. As for witch case it was, I can't really recall as I've read and listened to many articles about criminal and civil cases since I've been involved in government accountability for over a decade.