I do not care what he did three days or three years before. We have a system of justice where these things are heard and resolved by Courts of Law and if found guilty, a sentence is imposed by a Judge. Not the policeman on the street. It is called Due Process of Law. If you do not like this system, return to from where you came.Regardless of how you feel, the men’s supervisors all the way up their chain of command and the District Attorney felt upon watching the video, a/k/a, evidence, that these Officers had committed a crime. Appropriate action was taken. These former Officers will get their day in Court. The outcome of which remains yet to be seen.
Of course it matters what he did before. During the hour-long chase the police would have found out what he had just done.
And if the police aren’t to “punish” people, why are they given tasers, pepper spray, batons, police dogs, and guns?
Oh, that’s because even though those things all “punish” people, they aren’t for punishment. They’re not there because the police are taking matters into their own hands, and trying, convicting and punishing suspects.
And yet, the police are given that power, to a certain extent. When someone is actually doing certain things, the police have the power to make just such judgments, even to the point - as a last resort - to be someone’s “executioner.”
We have given them such power, an emergency power, to be judge, jury and inflicter of punishment, even executioner, albeit in a most limited way.
And even that we have given them power to have some authority over people, to stop them, to arrest them, is giving them some power to “judge” others. You have received some punishment, albeit limited, if you have been handcuffed, your liberty taken from you, and put in jail.
In this case, I’ll wait to see what the troopers’ defense is.
To judge them and convict them in the court of public opinion is to improperly take a power for ourselves, and to deny them their rights.