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There Is Such a Thing as a Bad Boy
He was a good boy, look at the pictures his family wants you to see. Don’t pay any attention to his criminal history, after all, he was a good boy. Our community lost a valuable young man.
Daunte Wright lost his life resisting arrest. A traffic stop for expired tags, signaling a left turn, and making a right turn, and then the infamous Minnesota statute; air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror. The media loves the air freshener angle.
Daunte Wright has an interesting criminal history that belies his lovely family photos. The mother of Caleb Livingston, Jennifer Le May, has a different view of Duante Wright.
Wright shot Caleb Livingston in the frontal part of his head and left him to die at a Minneapolis gas station in May 2019.
Caleb now suffers from a traumatic brain injury, respiratory arrest, and is permanently disabled.
Moreover, he is bound to a wheelchair, lost his speaking ability, and requires 24/7 care.
Not only the shooting cases, but the late Wright also shares several brushes with the law including firearm offenses, burglary, and assault.
However, his violent way of life is less talked about in the media, complained by Jennifer LeMay, Caleb’s mother.
She also revealed that Potter’s recent sentencing proves justice but not for Wright who was never put to the real justice for the crimes that he committed.
Daunte Wright was a very busy young man.
Daunte Wright had an open warrant for his arrest related to many charges at the time of his death.
He was being pursued by the police for the charges of aggravated armed robbery, for failure to appear in court.
In addition to those, he had also fled from officers and possessed a gun without a permit during an encounter with Minneapolis police in June.
Daunte Wright wasn’t resisting arrest to avoid a traffic cite. Listening to the platitudes from the prosecutors on finding justice for Daunte Wright with the conviction of Officer Kim Potter for his death seems rather empty. One has to wonder if they worked as hard to find justice for Caleb Livingston, and if they had, Mr. Wright might still be alive today.
When the Daunte Wright family gets their big settlement check from the city Jennifer LeMay may want to hire her own attorney to file a civil suit against Daunte Wright’s estate. After all her son requires 24/7 medical care.
Published in Law
Shhhhh! You’re not allowed to say that out loud.
That and a negligent police officer.
I would put that under “assumption of risk.” By the criminal.
Well, yes, but I would like to reduce that particular risk, as police officers do not only interact with the violent and guilty. Squirrely behavior is on him, but her tragic incompetence is on her — and her department.
And I could understand a variety of responses, but especially in this case, a trial and conviction and prison is too much. Especially considering the punishments Daunte Wright DIDN’T get. Maybe he wouldn’t have thought he could get away with fighting a cop, if the system hadn’t more or less coddled him for year. If Kim Potter is going to sit in prison, Keith Ellison and every prosecutor and/or judge that let Daunte Wright run loose, should be right next to her. Or even better, lock THEM up, but NOT her. They created the problem; she ended it.
Yes, and we can’t allow police officers to convict and execute people so freely. If she were not punished, there would be a growing trend of unfortunate “accidents” because that is human nature.
My argument – and I don’t think I’m alone – is that Daunte Wright in effect convicted and executed himself.
As Malcolm Reynolds said, “No son. You killed yourself. I just carried the bullet.”
I agree, but cosmic justice and poetic justice have the same relation to actual justice under law as any other adjectival justice. Nobody here has disagreed with being glad that the perp is room temperature. That’s cosmic justice. But incompetent cops don’t get to blow citizens away by accident and just walk. Prison for manslaughter is justice.
Still disagree. Yes, prison for manslaughter is justice. But I don’t think it qualifies as manslaughter. It would be different if Potter started the fight. Dismissal from the force, assignment to a desk job, etc, any of those would be adequate in my book. Note that this is pretty different from other situations including the Minneapolis (I think) recent-immigrant Somali (I think) cop who shot and killed the (white) woman who had called 911 in the first place, without any provocation.
Maybe look up manslaughter.
I’m aware that there are a variety of “degrees” too, plus mitigating circumstances may apply. I guess if you want to convict her of a type of manslaughter where the punishment doesn’t include prison, have at it.
I want prison time for those who blow people away (outside of particular circumstances which in this case *were not met*). I’m happy enough with the result. Have at it yourself.
I’m also against charging someone with “manslaughter” if they kill a home-invader who may not have actually threatened them with a gun (yet). How about you?
Not what we’re discussing.
Not that different. You think Daunte Wright was just going to wrestle free and leave? Even if you do, why expect someone else to take that risk? You have the option to risk your own life, but not someone else’s. I dunno, maybe you just haven’t been “mugged by reality” yet. Or if you have, you learned the wrong lesson from it.
Whatever. I’ll be glad to engage on your new post about manslaughter and home invasion. I suspect we will agree.
The defense expert made a rather convincing case that according to Minnesota law, Potter would have been justified to have used lethal force at that point.
I didn’t watch the trial, but this guy has been on top of it and he seems to be pretty sharp.
The difference is that it is reasonable to believe that someone invading your home has a weapon, if it is dark. It’s going to be up to a jury to determine reasonability. That’s what juries do.
Except that she immediately said “oops,” proving that she did not feel that she felt a need for deadly force. And shooting a firearm into a crowd is downright stupid, too.
Another situation where “the process is the punishment.”
Yes, cops tend to be the first to enjoy that slogan.
Mercy is expensive.
Tasers mean less head trauma from nightsticks, and less death from pistols, but they add another complexity to an officer’s job and another means of suing the police for not picking the weapon most appropriate to the task.
It would be better all around if people quit playing games with police; the innocent, the criminal, the legislators, and the criminal prosecutors all make it hard for cops to do right. I wouldn’t do the job on a bet.
#meneither