A woman in Florida says her 55-year-old “medically fragile” father was falsely accused of theft at a Florida grocery store last week and then seriously injured in a violent encounter with police. Now, she says, he is hospitalized and has lost the ability to speak.
No, I don’t see how anyone could absolve the cops in this scenario. Incompetent, stupid, prone to violence, ready to violate human rights at the drop of a hat, are all fair descriptions here. Many of these police violence stories have in common that one officer crosses the line out of fear, but the others join in with some sort of mob mentality.
But cops were new arrivals who most likely didn’t know the context. Fault them for excessive violence, having to control the situation with fear, need to be obeyed, etc, but this is sort of like a “swatting”. The person calling with a presumably incomplete story is most at fault. That person should be in prison, but it doesn’t change that those officers shouldn’t be trusted with authority and there needs to be a fundamental change in policing