This is in my opinion a real shame. I think Potter was doing what she thought was right at the time, not driven by racism or the malice of many recent killer Cops. Potter was training two cops. One of them decided to cuff the suspect while he was partially in the car (rather than clearing him to the back of the car). This gave Daunte Wright a big tactical advantage had he wanted to use it. I think this started Potter's panic, the struggle the officer was engaged in was dangerous and ill-advised - especially knowing Wright had weapons warrants associated with failure to appear. I don't know how you can watch the videos and not believe Potter truly made a disastrous mistake.
There were some troubling issues here:
1. What Kimberly did was clearly manslaughter, she essentially pleaded guilty right on the scene saying "I shot him" and "I'm going to jail". Those two statements are enough to convict on the charges and the "I'm going to jail" comment implies she understood what had happened.
2. Officer Potter yelled that she was going to tase the suspect, so Daunte was not given the option to surrender to a threat of deadly force. Mr. Wright was stopped because he had an air freshener on his mirror. Given the aggressiveness of the interaction with the Cops (all Black people have asked themselves when do they stop complying with a bad cop and protect their lives), Mr. Wright had to be thinking this is very wrong and it was a hassle stop.
3. The shot Potter fired was in the direction of Daunte's girlfriend also, so that sort of supports that she thought she was shooting a taser (if you stipulate that some of Potter's training was still working).
4. Accident or not, these sorts of things happen too often to Blacks and much less often to Whites in the same situation.
For me, as a Black man, It's good to see that the legal system called manslaughter according to the law even when it's a white cop vs. a black suspect. On the other hand, I absolutely believe this was an accident, and Potter was panicked because one of her trainees had put themselves in a very compromised position. I also question the application of manslaughter to cops in situations like this. Manslaughter usually involves negligence on the part of the perpetrator. For example, a DUI suspect who causes a fatal crash - they initiated the events leading to the deaths by drinking and driving. But a cop is doing their job and to hold them to the same standard is to say that people don't make mistakes.
So what should happen here? I think the laws are the laws, and Potter should have been convicted. This way, the laws apply to everyone. But I hope she does not get a forever sentence. Maybe 14 years with all but 1 or 2 suspended with some constructive public service like telling police departments her story and what went wrong. Potter had 26 years of training and experience - how does such a rookie mistake happen? The Wrights should get a very big civil award obviously. Finally, we need to clearly define the difference between manslaughter in the line of duty vs. a negligent civilian who places the public in danger.
Those are my thoughts. I think I must be correct because these positions anger left and right people, haha.
There were some troubling issues here:
1. What Kimberly did was clearly manslaughter, she essentially pleaded guilty right on the scene saying "I shot him" and "I'm going to jail". Those two statements are enough to convict on the charges and the "I'm going to jail" comment implies she understood what had happened.
2. Officer Potter yelled that she was going to tase the suspect, so Daunte was not given the option to surrender to a threat of deadly force. Mr. Wright was stopped because he had an air freshener on his mirror. Given the aggressiveness of the interaction with the Cops (all Black people have asked themselves when do they stop complying with a bad cop and protect their lives), Mr. Wright had to be thinking this is very wrong and it was a hassle stop.
3. The shot Potter fired was in the direction of Daunte's girlfriend also, so that sort of supports that she thought she was shooting a taser (if you stipulate that some of Potter's training was still working).
4. Accident or not, these sorts of things happen too often to Blacks and much less often to Whites in the same situation.
For me, as a Black man, It's good to see that the legal system called manslaughter according to the law even when it's a white cop vs. a black suspect. On the other hand, I absolutely believe this was an accident, and Potter was panicked because one of her trainees had put themselves in a very compromised position. I also question the application of manslaughter to cops in situations like this. Manslaughter usually involves negligence on the part of the perpetrator. For example, a DUI suspect who causes a fatal crash - they initiated the events leading to the deaths by drinking and driving. But a cop is doing their job and to hold them to the same standard is to say that people don't make mistakes.
So what should happen here? I think the laws are the laws, and Potter should have been convicted. This way, the laws apply to everyone. But I hope she does not get a forever sentence. Maybe 14 years with all but 1 or 2 suspended with some constructive public service like telling police departments her story and what went wrong. Potter had 26 years of training and experience - how does such a rookie mistake happen? The Wrights should get a very big civil award obviously. Finally, we need to clearly define the difference between manslaughter in the line of duty vs. a negligent civilian who places the public in danger.
Those are my thoughts. I think I must be correct because these positions anger left and right people, haha.
