In a conversation with Mike Solan, the head of the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild, Seattle Police Department officer and SPOG vice president Daniel Auderer minimized the killing of 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula by police officer Kevin Dave and joked that she had “limited value” as a “regular person” who was only 26 years old.
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In fact, as we reported exclusively, Dave was driving 74 miles an hour in a 25 mile per hour zone and struck Kandula while she was attempting to cross the street in a marked and well-lighted crosswalk.
“No, it’s a regular person.”
I’m speechless. I know the training draws a line between the police and everyone else, but for it to be right there in print, from someone high up the hierarchy…I’m stunned that they could be so callous with a life.
It really is “us versus them,” isn’t it?
I am not aware of any place else where police refer to people as “civilians”. Usually that is reserved for military and not military. But in the US they think it’s borderline martial law.
They really honestly believe there is a separation between them and “us.”. I believe this is the root of the problem.