Local SWAT Team Leader punched a guy in the head (video in link, watch left side) and then ran away like the cowardly bitch he is. Victim was on life support for 40 days and underwent 3 brain surgeries.
“Clifford faces a term of seven years under state sentencing guidelines. Two-thirds of that would be served in prison, the rest on supervised release. He was convicted of first- and third-degree assault, both felonies, and fifth-degree misdemeanor assault. Convicted felons are not eligible to hold a Minnesota peace officer license.”
Now we just have to wait to see if the judge follows the guidelines or refuses to send the bastard to prison.
In his first court appearance, he had a lot of cops there for support and they were supposedly very supportive of his actions in the incident. Given how much this state rolls over and lets Law Enforcement do whatever it wants, gaining this conviction is a huge major deal.
I wish I felt the same thing would happen in Nevada but I know it wouldn’t. Here, the cop would never even be charged with a crime. Heck, the victim would likely be charged for hitting the cop’s fist with his face.
You know, if we stop our keepers of the peace from bashing in the heads of people, what’s next? Dogs marrying declawed cats? Toilet paper rolls placed vertically on a stand!?
Amazing, a police officer might actually go to jail for violently abusing his authority. I will believe it when I see it.
The police officers who attempted to murder (not identify or arrest) the occupants of the Toyota Tacoma pickup truck and the Honda Ridgeline in the whole Dorner fiasco will not be punished. Those were not valid escalations of force.
Sentenced to 43 months. He has to serve a minimum of 2 years and 4 months in State Prison before being eligible for release.
In another article, his attorney was talking (pre-sentencing) about how they can’t send him to jail because he’s a cop, and he’ll be in constant danger. Oh, and he has a police related tatoo on his arm, so that will make him a target. Cry me a river.
As pointed out in this and other sources, he is now a Convicted Felon. He can no longer be a police officer, own firearms or vote. He was a cop for 20 years. I believe that he lost his pension, but I’m not 100% sure of that.
Haven’t seen much about what was going on, but what abuse of authority? From what little I know he was abusing the privilege of being a human being, but not acting under the colour of his authority.
I don’t think “justice” is completely done, at least not yet:
[
](Clifford sentenced 43 months for assault conviction)
So no sentence (yet?) for the 3rd and 5th degree assault convictions and the guy’s 3 brain surgeries are only gonna cost the perp $3400, not mention whatever care he will need subsequently.
Many officers, tho, feel that they are “always cops” and that their job elevates them above the rest of us citizens, even when they are not in uniform or on the clock. There’s no audio on the video recording of the fight, so we don’t know what their verbal interaction included before the punch was thrown. It’s possible that he invoked his employment as a reason for Mr. Vander Lee to acquiesce to his demands.
Restitution varies by state and will depend on both how much the perp has left to pay and state guidelines. And it would only cover out of pocket, so it would also depend on how much of the bill the insurance company already footed.
Just a WAG, but the cost of his defense probably drained a good portion of what might have gone to the victim.
I can see the victim and the insurance company coming after whatever he’s got left in a civil trial, though. And that would probably include what he makes after getting out of prison.
Some laws support this idea. There is often an extra punishment given to someone who assaults or murders a policeman, since the crime is considered (by many) to be an attack upon society as well as an attack upon the individual. These laws often apply even when the policeman is off-duty.
In compensation, I would hold that when policemen commit crimes, they ought to be subject to extra punishment, for pretty much the same reason. It is an “attack upon society” by criminalizing the enforcement power of authority. It’s making authority into something bad, not good. That hurts all of us, and needs to be punished very severely.
(I suggest implanting vacuum-breathing apparatus and sending them to Titan.)
The convictions on 3rd and 5th degree assault are a bit confusing to me. A quick googling tells me that in Minnesota, the 1st degree involves “great bodily harm or use of deadly force”, 3rd “substantial bodily harm” (or assault on a minor, which is irrelevant here), and 5th “assault where no substantial harm is inflicted”. It seems to me that the 3rd and 5th would be lesser included offenses. Maybe that’s why no separate sentence was issued for them?
I concur that police officers should be punished more harshly for crimes than a regular citizen would be, and arrived at my conclusions (years ago, btw) by the same logic you employed.