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Originally Posted by shakran
If the DA had you on video kicking me in the head as I lay in the grass, what would you be charged with? That's what he should be charged with. Easy as that. It doesn't matter whether or not he's a bad guy, or whether or not he's done this before. The cops aren't gonna look at you and say "well gee Jazz isn't a bad guy and he's never done this before, so it's totally fine that he booted shakran in the skull." You can have perfectly clean criminal record, and you'll still get charged with an assault if you kick me.
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Ah, but you see, it DOES matter, especially when it comes time for the District Attorney to bring charges. What other cops do or don't think is completely immaterial - the DA is the one who decides who is going to be charged with what. The DA gets to make the decision of whether or not to charge a felony or misdemenor and how agressively to pursue things in court. There is felony and misedemenor assault, one of which means that the cop is automatically fired and one that doesn't. If I were in the DA's office and the assumptions that I've already admitted I'm working from were true (no past history of excessive force, no steel-toed shoes), I'd argue for misdemenor. If either or both of those are not true, I'd reconsider, especially depending on what the actual injuries to the suspect are.
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Originally Posted by shakran
My question for you is, why should a police officer not be held to the same laws and consequences for breaking those laws, that he holds everyone else to?
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Absolutely they should. That's why I'm making the argument that I am.