I understand you want more accountability, but I don’t understand how you believe it should be brought about.
I suppose if what you suspect is true, and the officer involved is a reckless moron who doesn’t understand the dangers of cars or his role in the criminal justice system, then I, too, would like for him to be held accountable.
I just don’t see any evidence that was the case. There are a lot of unknowns. I didn’t hear about any other arrests during the fatal traffic investigation.
If the officers were being unprofessional and confusing in their conduct, why did the other drivers not attempt to do the same thing this golfer did? Do you think the golfer was singled out by incompetent or malicious police officers?
Perhaps we will know more at 1pm when the DA makes a statement.
Via harsher responses to incompetence than a slap on the wrist & a buried note, and outside assessment of sketchy scenarios determining guilt and outcome, not internal controls. Every other profession I can think of, most with significantly less impact on other lives, follow something similar. Typically there is a warning/report, retraining, a PIP (performance improvement plan) and finally disciplinary action and likely separation if changes aren’t realized. For egregious situations, the escalation path is skipped. While I’m sure some form of this process exists within agencies, there are a lot of officers running around with “records” of their own, sometimes egregious records, yet they’re still “serving”. This should be tightened up, imo. And this series of events being controlled by its own, even down to union membership which is a whole different can of worms, is the “thin blue line”.
My understanding is that PGA golfers are routinely waved in through traffic at tournaments. They get to cut the line because they are the event. Scottie was, allegedly, waved on by a uniformed officer as normal, proceeded, and then had his car tackled by an off duty officer in a parking attendant vest. Understandably confusing for Scottie, and the genesis of the whole fiasco. So while I don’t think Scottie was singled out maliciously, incompetence surfaced and then adding insult to injury Scottie was charged with assault for the officers incompetence. This is a problem, if true and my personal issue with the scenario. I get mistakes and dropped communications can happen in a chaotic environment but to follow through with bogus charges is bullshit.
Unfortunately I’ll have to catch up later, busy day today. It will be interesting to hear.
The other drivers likely were not golfers reporting for their tee times. There were only 156 players after all. In addition to that, Scheffler was unaware that tee times were delayed (others were aware), further reducing the number of golfers.
At golf tournaments, the PGA completely reroutes traffic. Most, if not all, of the patrons park a long way away - when the US Open was at Pebble, it was fifteen miles. There is separate parking for workers, officials, vendors, etc… but the players have their own lot (separate even from the caddies). The number of cars using that lot would be 156 or less. At that time of the morning with a rain delay, it is possible that Scheffler was the first player to arrive - which may have confused the cop - despite the fact that Scheffler was in a PGA Courtesy car and those are usually clearly marked. Considering the darkness, and the weather, it’s entirely possible the cop did not notice and assumed there would not be any players arriving at that time.
I don’t want to hazard a guess regarding his IQ but I am comfortable saying that he behaved recklessly, and has in the past (doing burnouts in his cruiser with civilians in it).
I also believe that many of us have drawn conclusions not supported by the available information, myself included. Due to my familiarity with police (several family members) and having heard some of their stories, and being familiar with Scheffler having followed his career, I came to the conclusion that the officer over reacted. I did not have enough facts to confirm this conclusion, but I had enough knowledge to make an educated guess.
Unfortunately, law enforcement draws an unequal share of miscreants. Combine that with the nature of the job - see Stanford Prison Experiment - and it is understandable why some officers veer from the task. Frankly, I am surprised that it doesn’t happen more often.
I suspect the justice system will achieve an acceptable end result. While not perfect, it usually works better than the alternatives.
What outside assessment would you like, small government guy? I’ll tell you who will conduct outside assessments(because it always does): the federal government. So, you’ll get federal control of local government. Big win…for big government.
I hadn’t heard of him either but my awareness of golf is low. I know Tiger Woods is a good golfer who likes freaky sex and I remember playing Lee Trevino’s Fighting Golf on my Nintendo in the 1980’s.
@The_Myth It is certainly possible that his expectation of special treatment on public roads during golf tournaments led to an expectation of special treatment on public roads during fatal accident investigations. It is also possible that he didn’t know there was a fatal accident.
There are a lot of possibilities, which is why we have a court system.
Tiger was a good golfer - possibly the GOAT. But injuries and age have taken their toll and he missed the cut at the tournament in question.
Scheffler has stated that he was unaware of the fatality and the tee time delays. It is one of the reasons why he was so early for his new tee time, probably why the officer did not expect to encounter a player at that time of the morning. I think jumping to the conclusion he expected “special treatment” might be unsupported in that he had actually earned special treatment by having a specific lot dedicated to 156 players, that he had a player’s badge, and was driving a courtesy car.
I am not familiar with Valhalla, but in the dozens of tournaments I have attended (as a PGA Professional I was given access to all PGA events) I have seen that most roads around a tournament venue have restricted access to authorized personnel - it is possible that road did not even meet the definition of public at the time of the incident.
I could absolutely see a privatized consulting firm hired to do it. Maybe a little bureaucratic in application as it would likely require some sort of legal oversight but it doesn’t have to be a government arm necessarily. In any case, I don’t see govt checking and limiting itself as problematic. Until that power is abused instead of serving its purpose.
What are you listening to on the radio as you’re rolling up to the course? Million dollar pay day on the line! Thunderstruck" on repeat? Kenny G to stay calm?
Dude was in the zone! He had finished 1st in like 4 recent tournaments. Do you think he was like an OCD robot, trying to do everything exactly the same week after week to keep the winning streak going?
