I don’t want to undervalue the fact that a life was taken. A life is a life, but what she did was purely an accident. Does that mean there shouldn’t be any negative consequences? No. But prison or a felony conviction? Why don’t we ever talk about the fact that the officer in these situations is a human. Most got into the job after being just normal people like everyone else. Cops receive budgets that are under funded. This results in training budgets being the first things cuts. Lack of training, lack of relevant compensation and the prevalence of negative media attention make it ne of the crappiest and most politicized jobs out there. The job attracts 21 year olds and due to lack of pay and compensation that would otherwise attract more qualified applicants with relevant life experience, we are stuck with hiring kids to do a man’s job and then we complain that they messed up. I get that she was a veteran and on the job for a really long time. Does that make her less human? I’d dare say it makes her more.
Civically, the city should lose their shirts here, but criminally… my God, I don’t think this was the route to go.
We need some middle ground here.
