I personally knew Officer Potter. I was a dispatcher for the Hennepin County Sheriffs Office for 23 years of my 36 year career as a dispatcher. We dispatched for the city that Officer Potter worked for. She was a fine upstanding officer. She made a fatal error that day. Police officers are humans, not robots. Just like a doctor is a human and not a machine. If the doctor accidentally kills someone, she/he is not charged for manslaughter, but simply goes on living their life. If Mr. Wright would have complied, he would be here today living his life.
Obviously this was not an easy decision for the jury, but I do believe other incidents that have been happening influenced their verdict. I believe they were afraid of what would happen to the twin cities and the country if they did not find her guilty.
This was a very sad day for Law Enforcement. No one will want the job of a police officer again. It is a hard job and if you have no backing who will choose to work in that field. We will end up being policed by the military. Won’t that be interesting for career criminals.
Like I said earlier, I was a dispatcher for 36 years. Years ago for every police officer position that was open 100’s of candidates would apply. Six years ago, when I retired, they were lucky if they could get a handful of men and women to apply for the job and to try to find a good one from a handful was not always easy. When something like this happens to one of the good ones, why would anyone choose this profession. I would bet you would steer your son/daughter, grandson/granddaughter into another profession these days. Just ponder what our country will be like down the road when no one goes into the law enforcement field. I, for one, hope I am no longer alive when it comes to that.
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