Originally Posted by
KerrAvon
The real issue here is that the internet and the wide availability of mobile phone footage has turned large swathes of the public into judge, jury and executioner (a lynch mob - but some people get a bit overly sensitive about that categorisation – it’s an unpalatable truth).
It’s for a jury to decide whether the police officer used excessive and unlawful force having had all of the evidence tested in front of them. The fact that he fired seven shots is being held out as ‘proof’ that he was acting unlawfully whereas it may be exactly the opposite – it may well indicate that he perceived a very high level of threat from Jacob Blake. The police officer's lawyers will certainly argue that.
Blake’s character may well be highly relevant – if Blake is a person with a history of violence and the use of weapons and the officer had been made aware of that (officers in the UK are routinely given details of any ‘markers’ for an address or individual that they are being deployed to) then that would alter his perception of the risk that he faced and would have a bearing upon whether his actions were reasonable (certainly under UK law and probably US law too).
The sad thing is that city centres will burn if a jury does not come up with the ‘right’ verdict for the mob.