General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Officer Salamoni put his gun to Alton Sterling's head and said, "I'll kill you, bitch." [View all]aikoaiko
(34,169 posts)In some way that is analogous to involuntary and voluntary manslaughter, if an LEO misidentifies an object as a gun then they go away for X number of years in prison and if an LEO thinks there is a gun and there is no object that could have been mistaken for gun, they go away for X+ years.
It is their job to correctly identify when they are in danger and when they are not. In neither of the cases above would the LEO have been in danger. Therefore they made a negligent decision.
I can no longer give LEO the benefit of the doubt as I once did. Prove the genuine threat or go to jail if you shoot someone wrongly.
In this case Alton Sterling had a gun, but it was still in his pocket which is not a threat. I would put this case in the first category.