“This sentence honors the memory of Ms. Rusczcyk and allows Mr. Noor to continue to serve the city,” they wrote. “Just as importantly, it mandates that Mr. Noor will continue to consider his action and the great loss they caused.”
I think 12.5 years in prison would satisfy all of those points. He would continue to serve the city by not murdering or manslaughtering anyone, and he’d have plenty of time to contemplate his actions. That’s how Ms. Rusczcyk’s memory is best honored.
Wow. I’d propose a sentence where I turn myself in to the local liquor store every week on Justine Damond’s birthday and toast a fine glass to her name.
That way I’d be serving 1) Ms. Rusczcyk’s memory, 2) the city, and 3) myself wit a big ol’ bottle of wine for getting off scott-free for murder/manslaughter! DAMN!?!
It is still a little troubling, though, that the gang of officers in Baltimore who attended to Freddy Gray’s last hours all got to walk. None of them had a funny Muslim-sounding name.
I don’t disagree that Officer Noor should have served time for manslaughter, but I think this case seems like another example of racial disparities in the criminal justice system. If it were a white cop who had mistakenly shot a black woman, I seriously doubt there would be a 12-year prison sentence.
There’s another, equally important statistic in that story:
So, when whites are searched, they are almost twice as likely as blacks to have contraband, but hey, we’ll keep searching more black people than white people anyway.
Given the statistics in the article, regarding the percentage of blacks and whites stopped and searched, and the percentage of searches that result in contraband being found, there are only really two possible conclusions to be drawn:
White people are almost twice as likely as black people to engage in illegal activity.
Police in Louisville stop black people just for the hell of it.
I concede that #1 is possible, but #2 seems far more likely. Of course, the cops argue that they’re just doing their job:
That first paragraph is hilarious. He uses the dramatic over-representation of blacks in the criminal justice system not as an example of injustice and discrimination, but as an excuse for his own department’s racist policing practices. And the second paragraph smacks of “We had to destroy the village in order to save it.”
It is partly because of the feedback loop. “I searched his car because he acted nervous” – when it has become increasingly obvious that being non-white around police officers is very hazardous to one’s health, of course non-whites are going to be nervous. And the police expect them to act like a lawn jockey: if they are relaxed and confident, there must be something wrong with them.
But, you know, the police are not racist. No, no, no, not at all.