Why don’t you give us a brief summary since you live there and know what is going on?
Prosocuters charge the highest crime they think evidence can support, and let the jury reduce it in deliberations. It’s SOP. Not grandstanding.
Short of it is they are simply moving programs and services out of the PD budget into other dept budgets- that accounts for like 30% of the 50% in cuts, and the remsining 20% is being negotiated ie. probably end up with a 8-10% functional budget cut to SPD, which is about right as they transition out the higher paid old guard and continue onboarding the younger more diverse newer recruits.
They are cutting the police budget by 50%?
Not always. The charges here are well within the bounds of the law though. They aren’t shooting for the rafters with a 3rd degree/ manslaughter charge, as they have charged both.
It’s a bit of both.
Edit: I see the charges have been amended to second degree. I’m not familiar with the precise nature of that (we don’t use the classification in Ireland or the U.K.)
From what a quick google could give me:
‘Second degree murder is generally defined as intentional murder that lacks premeditation, is intended to only cause bodily harm, and demonstrates an extreme indifference to human life.‘
I think that’s a tall order, myself. It’s possible to win on that charge, but the 3rd degree (lord I despise this yank classification) or manslaughter would seem more prosaic to me.
The U.K. would, likely, opt for what we call a reckless murder, which is a more clear cut standard for such a situation:
‘recklessness with respect to circumstances surrounding the conduct or the result of the conduct when the person is aware of, but consciously disregards, a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that its disregard constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise under all the circumstances as viewed from the accused person’s standpoint.‘
The way it was explained to me by folks on both the prosecution and defense sides is that for more serious crimes, they will charge the highest crime that the evidence CAN support as they would be doing a disservice to shoot lower than what could be convicted. The jury will be informed of what constitutes lower crimes like manslaughter and have the opportunity to convict on lower charges during their deliberations.
I think there is a good shot at 2nd degree. The officer pinned the guys neck for 8 minutes 46 seconds, and held it there for minutes after the dude went limp. But maybe manslaughter does fit better… but the fact that there is any (real) debate which is more appropriate means that the higher charge was the appropriate one to file.
Appropriate to file? That sets an expectation on the part of the community. What happens if there is a conviction on a lesser charge?
I would consider that reckless homicide. It wasn’t SOP, and the act continued with disregard to the consequences.
Manslaughter seems fairly close to a slam dunk to me.
I’ll be interested to see what type of defence is mounted. The eye watering toxicology and health report on Floyd would be where I suspect they will go.
More riots probably.
I read a couple articles on this just now, around 80% of the police budget is for paying wages. One way or another, there is going to be much fewer cops. Also getting rid of more experience cops in favor of “diverse” rookies does not sound like a good plan at all. The whole thing seems to be driven by anti-police sentiment without actually thinking through what they are going to do.
Doing something to improve policing is a good concept in theory, but simply defunding the police is reckless.
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A lot of these police forces more diverse than the people screaming at them…just saying!
That happens all the time. I’m sure the social/political ramifications do get taken into account (even if that is not technically ethical), but i wouldnt expect riots if the charge is manslaughter and 20 years is the sentence.
Werent the officers in the Rodey King beatings straight up aquitted? That kind of BS is cause for riots, but i wouldnt expect riots for manslaughter vs 2nd degree.
Because they followed procedure. Had chokeholds not been abolished, things would have been different.
The old guard at SPD had real problems with brutality and racial profiling which is why they got hammered by the DOJ in 2011 and have been on tight probation and had to follow strict guidelines to change the culture over the past decade. Early retirement for the old guard frees up money, and will continue the cultural change.
There will not be “much fewer” cops. There will likely be a small decrease.
Do you think the beating Rodney King received was justified?
How else were they supposed to stop him?
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Cultural revolution perhaps?
You think 4 cops beating the hell out of a man on the ground with night sticks for almost a minute straight is justified? You and i must not be watching the same video.
So you support police brutality and racial profiling, and think changing that culture in a PD is something only a marxist would want?