A federal lawsuit is now planned.

  • vlad@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    There probably is no way to actually legally prove that they’re at fault. But if I was one of those cops, I’d have trouble sleeping at night.

      • vlad@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        I’d change that to “The kind of person who successfully becomes a cop…”.

        I think a lot of people want to be a force for good, and the intent behind police as a concept is to reduce crime, and crime is generally bad. So a lot of people want to be cops to make the world better. But that’s like wanting to be an honest politician. Most people already playing the game are there for personal power, and if you don’t lie and cheat you won’t have as much power as those already in place.

        • LeadSoldier@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          If a person in America doesn’t already know that all cops are bastards and that there have been constant protests and reporting about it over the past couple of decades then they are choosing to be a type. I’m no longer willing to pretend that everybody has good intentions. This isn’t the case for police and the FBI.

    • ira
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      1 year ago

      That’s the thing about felony murder. If her death occurred as a result of their commission of a felony, then they should be on the hook for felony murder. It doesn’t matter that they didn’t directly kill her.

      Felony murder isn’t a phrase to disambiguate between a murder that’s a felony and some kind of nonexistent misdemeanor murder. It refers to a very specific type of “murder” where somebody dies as a result of somebody else committing a felony. The commission of the felony is enough to make the person liable - they don’t have to have intended to kill anybody in the process or be directly involved in the death.

      Four unarmed teenagers break into a house. The homeowner shoots and kills one of them. The three survivors are all liable for felony murder for the fourth’s death, and can face life in prison or even a death sentence.

      A group of criminals break into a house. One stays outside as a lookout, completely unaware of what is happening in the house. The elderly homeowner tries to stop the criminals in the house, but slips and falls and hits his head and dies from a brain hemorrhage. The lookout is liable for felony murder.

      Two cops are having a disagreement at work. They get a call of a burglary in progress and drive out there and start chasing the suspect. One of the cops shoots at the suspect, but “accidentally” misses and fatally wounds the other cop they were fighting with back at the station. The burglar is liable for felony murder for the cop’s death.

      If the same standards were applied to the criminals who raided the journalist’s house, then they’d all be charged with felony murder.