I have mentioned before at how little "regular" people are watching this case. That said, I read an interesting comment on a friend's FB this morning that illustrated my point perfectly. My friend is a retired cop, sent into early retirement due to a gunshot wound to his leg, making him permanently disabled. He now runs a website dedicated to honoring LEOs killed in the line of duty. He simply mentioned that it is a shame that people don't care as much about officers killed in the line of duty than about the MB case and now this one, which he referred to as "good shoots." One of his friends attacked him saying "how do you know it was a good shoot, were you there, are you in the GJ room, etc..." THIS is the problem. In this country, and in most civilized soceities, we entrust our LEOs to make good decisions, based on their training, experience and judgement. Someone has to do it. So while there is nothing wrong with "questioning" each shooting, as they are with the GJ in this case and they investigate in EVERY case. However, we BEGIN with the understanding there is not only a presumption of innocence when it comes to our LEOs, it is at a much higher level than with other civilian realted "crimes."
I have taken issue with the fact that this thread is in the "Crimes in the News" section. I understand why that is now, however, it makes me shudder to think that when a cop shoots a suspect in the line of duty, it can ever be considered a crime. To me, it begins with the presumption that the suspect is the potential criminal and the LEO was simply doing the job we entrusted him or her to do. We do NOT begin with the presumption the shooting is a criminal event on the part of the LEO, unless a thorough investigation reveals compelling evidence that it was something more.
This type of thinking has bled its way into our society with a lot of this "cops are bad" propoganda. I have friends who post stuff all the time about out of control cops and while sometimes in some cases it is the truth. Cops CAN abuse their authority. They do NOT have "absolute power." And I get that cops should be held accountable if and when they break the law, just like everyone else. But the way many are starting to "think" and we've seen it expressed by the media, government officials, protestors, and even some of the general public, that LEOs are immediately believed to be criminals when they shoot a suspect.
To me, ODW is 100% innocent and SHOULD be treated as such UNTIL there is word from the investigation by the GJ to tell me otherwise. So the standard "questioning" and "investigation" which already takes place as protocol in officer shootings, is now being replaced with the presumption that it is a crime unless they can prove justification. To me, it begins with justification and it needs to be proven otherwise. When society starts to turn on its own LEOs, we will begin to turn the power over to the criminals and those freedoms that we all love so much and accuse the police of taking from us, will be taken away from us tenfold if the criminals are allowed the upper hand, which is what I see starting to gain momentum in our society.