DocSpit
DocSpit t1_j23iti1 wrote
Reply to comment by [deleted] in Texas man appeals death sentence, stating Comedy Central episode violated his rights by djc8
Getting off? No. None of the footage influenced his conviction. A new sentence? Almost certainly. Most likely his death sentence will be commuted back down to life without parole.
DocSpit t1_jarks67 wrote
Reply to comment by Colt1911-45 in Purple Heart awarded to deputy in fatal shooting during middle school pickup prompts backlash by SLaSZT
This issue is that there isn't a fix. Not a real one. The biggest problems are institutional; at the core of how the justice system works.
Except in the cases of the most egregious oversteps, police don't typically face repercussions for unlawful acts. Why? Because the DAs and prosecutors know that, if they start going after cops the way they come after regular people, they'll suddenly stop getting cooperation from police on other cases; which in turn makes the prosecutors "look bad" because now they can't put genuine criminals behind bars.
Want to pursue civil action? Sorry: Qualified Immunity. Judges won't even let your case against an officer proceed to court unless you can point to an identical incident in the past where the courts already ruled an officer in the wrong. Even one small difference can invalidate the claim entirely. Quite the Catch-22 the judiciary set up, isn't it? It's made it so that cops can't even be punished for actual armed robbery...because no court actually ever ruled police can't rob people in broad daylight.
Exactly how much "additional training" do you believe it will be necessary for police officers to undergo in order for people like you and me to be allowed to sue them for wrongdoing, out of curiosity?
All the "additional training" in the world won't matter a lick if there are no consequences for violating that training. And that, institutionally, cannot happen in our current system unless the very policing agencies at fault allow it to. No conflict of interest there...
The real solution? People need to just stop calling the police, except in one of two situations:
Some genuine life-or-death situation where bullets are already actively flying only only goons with more bullets have a hope of resolving things.
When you just need an official report written up for an insurance company, like a vehicle accident.
Other than that, keep the cops away from a situation where they don't either need to kill someone or fill out paperwork, because that's all our entire criminal justice system has rendered them reliable for at this point.