There is a good diary on the rec list by Laughing Planet. I recommend that those who have not read it do so. The point of the diary, as I read it, was to expose another layer of excessive force. The ubiquitousness of video feeds has exposed heretofore hidden abuses by law enforcement. I am grateful for this type of evidence.
What I find disturbing, however, within the diary comments (edited per Laughing Planet as a clearer description) is a rush not only to judgment, but also penalty. While we have a perfect right to our emotional reactions to violence, I would hope there would also be respect for the rule of law.
I will forego copying and pasting specific comments, but a trigger for me was one that deemed the shooting "cold blooded murder" and hoped the BART officer would be electrocuted for his crime. What happened to our concern about the "rule of law"?
Accusations of "cold blooded murder" assume that the perpetrator is a sociopath, psychopath, or otherwise deranged. If one is to accept this conclusion, there are standards of analysis of guilt/innocence depending on which state you live in. If cold blooded murder, then a jury may decide guilty but insane or innocent by reason of insanity. Either way, chances are in California -- that doesn't end up with Old Sparky, especially because lethal injection is the execution of choice.
I am asking sincerely, can anyone on this site determine the mental state of the cop who shot subdued man? Does your video have a special feed into his brain or psyche?
Here is how American juris prudence, when it is at the apex of Constitutional rationality, proceeded when evidence was handed to them on a silver platter:
The Amistad Trials -- unambiguous mutiny
Nuremburg Trials -- genocidal psychopaths who had due process of law
Charles Manson trial the fucker got due process and is still alive, not having the benefit of Old Sparky.
John Wayne Gacey, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Timothy McVeigh, mmph number of pedophiles, baby/child killers, Donald Rumsfeld, etc. Hideous examples of a carbon footprint without a soul. All of these people either had or deserve a trial or an opportunity to plea.
I admit that I am a lawyer -- ergo, a subject of vilification -- those of you who believe in mob rule, vigilantism or judgment by video, feel free to smite this diary.