But the media told me he was ready to plead guilty to 2nd degree murder?! I think people are forgetting the other consequences of convicting him though: Police all over the country will quit.
In fact, many have. Applicants to become officers is down by a lot, and a lot of cops took their retirement early. And these aren't old people. A cop can legally retire after just 20 years of service. So if they started in their 20's, they can retire in their 40's. That's a lot of money to pay out, money that a lot of states simply don't have either, which also effectively doubles their costs because they had to pay retirement to the officer, then pay again to hire their replacement.
People don't much like having a job where they can be put in a position where they will go to prison for doing their job, depending on political whims. It's a bad precedent to set. And they know better than to see it as just a special case, because every case gets treated as a 'special' case, as an attempt to segment a cop from everyone else so they can more easily go after them. You can't tell cops "Oh we're not coming after you, this guys different, you're fine!". They know better. They know how they operate when they themselves go after suspects.
But the media told me he was ready to plead guilty to 2nd degree murder?! I think people are forgetting the other consequences of convicting him though: Police all over the country will quit.
In fact, many have. Applicants to become officers is down by a lot, and a lot of cops took their retirement early. And these aren't old people. A cop can legally retire after just 20 years of service. So if they started in their 20's, they can retire in their 40's. That's a lot of money to pay out, money that a lot of states simply don't have either, which also effectively doubles their costs because they had to pay retirement to the officer, then pay again to hire their replacement.
People don't much like having a job where they can be put in a position where they will go to prison for doing their job, depending on political whims. It's a bad precedent to set. And they know better than to see it as just a special case, because every case gets treated as a 'special' case, as an attempt to segment a cop from everyone else so they can more easily go after them. You can't tell cops "Oh we're not coming after you, this guys different, you're fine!". They know better. They know how they operate when they themselves go after suspects.