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Cops and Taser Confusion

5/25/2021

ABC News

Kim Potter

Kim Potter, the white cop who killed Daunte Wright, a twenty-year-old black man, murdered Wright when she drew and fired her handgun instead of her taser. Potter claimed she only intended to tase him. According to Potter, she mistakenly drew and fired her gun instead of her taser. Potter may be telling the truth. She may have accidentally used her gun instead of a taser. But if she had successfully drawn her taser, its use would have exceeded Minneapolis Police use-of-force guidelines cited in the Derek Chauvin trial.

Use-of-force trainers in the Chauvin trial testified that law enforcement officers should only respond with the level of force proportionate to the resistance or aggression of the suspect. After pulling Wright over because of alleged expired tags, Potter and two other officers found that he had an outstanding warrant for a misdemeanor. As one officer attempted to take Wright into custody, Wright slipped away from him and re-entered his car. According to the Minneapolis Police Department Defense & Control Guide (see below), the proportionate force would have been a controlled take-down, including a neck restraint. Potter should only have considered the use of a taser if Wright had been actively aggressive.

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When Police Kill, Prosecutors Can Convict

5/17/2021

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George Floyd

Derek Chauvin’s defense failed to “emotionally distance” George Floyd from the jury. And I believe that failure was a significant contributor to Chauvin being found verdict. The defense could not emotionally distance George Floyd from the jury for three fundamental reasons. First, the bystanders who saw Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck and heard him cry out for help recognized his humanity. The bystanders on the gruesome scene did not know George Floyd, but his humanity impacted them. And because the defense could not distance the bystanders from Floyd, their testimony, along with the videotape, prevented the defense from emotionally distancing the jurors. Second, George Floyd’s girlfriend gave powerful testimony about their struggle with opioid addiction. Even though opioid addiction has affected a more diverse group of people than was once true, some people still see addiction as an individual’s moral failing. Floyd’s girlfriend humanized their addiction and prevented it from being used to distance the jury from Floyd. Third, there were four blacks and two mixed-race members on the twelve-person jury. Jury experts have found that the presence of non-white jurors minimizes unfair racial distinctions. Also, three white jurors in their twenties might have had moderate racial views.

Travon Martin

How juries respond to these fundamental reasons is also seen in the deadly excessive force trials such as George Zimmerman’s trial for killing sixteen-year-old Trayvon Martin. Although Zimmerman was a member of a neighborhood watch program and not a policeman, he stalked and killed Trayvon under the color of law. Because several houses in Zimmerman’s complex had been burglarized, possibly by blacks, Zimmerman became suspicious when he saw Trayvon walking back from the store to his father’s home. While Zimmerman followed Trayvon, he called the police to report a suspicious person. The police dispatcher advised Zimmerman that the police were on the way and warned Zimmerman to stop following Trayvon. Zimmerman, however, continued to follow Trayvon. Zimmerman claimed that Trayvon had jumped him from bushes and knocked him to the ground. As the two fought on the ground, Zimmerman claimed Trayvon, who weighed sixty pounds less than Zimmerman, began pounding his head on a concrete walkway and reached for Zimmerman’s holstered gun. Zimmerman alleged that Trayvon shouted that he was going to kill Zimmerman and engaged in a struggle for the pistol. Zimmerman claimed that he had shot Trayvon in self-defense.

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Cops and Taser Confusion

When Police Kill, Prosecutors Can Convict

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