re: Minneapolis police kneels on man neck until he dies- Cops fired

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I watched the full 10+ minute video and everything in it leads me to believe that he actually did want to kill him. It's extremely hard to see it any other way. Every once in a while, a person is just crazy or evil. 

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I agree that it appears the officer wanted to inflict harm on the perp from the video alone, especially from an outside, non-law enforcement perspective. It looks really bad and is seemingly for no reason after the guy is subdued.

But I can assure you if the officer wanted to go out and kill a guy that day - or just lost his cool while the perp was resisting and wanted to kill him - there are much better, more conspicuous ways he could've done it. Kneeling on the guy's neck in the middle of the street with a crowd shooting video, other officers, and even EMS around seems like the opposite of what you'd want to do as an officer wanting to kill a guy and walk away scott free.

That's not to say he's not a shitty officer that was most likely on a power trip. He definitely was, and definitely ignored a lot of signs the guy was suffering and what he was doing was overboard. That alone is fricked up and shows the cop has no business being an officer in charge of upholding the law and protecting citizens.

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And I would love to hear the explanation of why the suspect/victim wasn't cuffed and sitting in the cop car after about a minute or so.

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I've been curious about this myself since the beginning. As a Marshal, if we subdue a perp that's out of his mind on drugs or needs medical attention in ANY way (like this perp did) we STILL don't leave him/her face down on the ground until EMS arrives - let alone applying pressure to the perp while waiting.

If the perp isn't combative anymore we'll sit him/her up and keep a close guard while we wait for EMS; if they're still a flight risk we'll put them in the back of a vehicle. We will not continue to leave any amount of pressure on them when they clearly need medical.

All in all, I think this officer was either poorly trained, not able to control his anger and emotions, or both. If he was setting out to kill someone that day or any time soon, as an officer, there are many other ways and opportunities to do so that are less conspicuous.

This isn't a race issue though, it's a shitty officer issue. These people on police forces all over the country need to be weeded out and removed. I don't exactly know how you go about that, but better salaries and more intense training would be a good start. Higher salaries to attract a more quality candidate, and intense training to then weed out the ones not cut out for law enforcement work.

Just my two cents as a Marshal. I've seen plenty of little-man-syndrome-having local officers around the country, ones that clearly aren't cut out for it a mile away. The people that hire these officers and continue to employ them need to start answering for allowing these types to have multiple deadly weapons while patrolling the streets.

If I can tell an officer is shitty and not cut out for the job a minute after meeting him/her, their superiors should be able to tell too.

ETA - it should be noted that these type of shitty officers are BY FAR a minority. The vast, VAST majority of officers at all ranks I've met across the country are good, caring people just doing a job.

Every Marshal and federal agent I've ever worked beside have been straight-laced, quality people that take pride in what they do and generally care deeply about the populace. You don't make it to federal without being a standup person that takes his/her job very professionally and caringly.

It's local forces that desperately need an overhaul in their screening and training processes. But even then, a vast majority of the officers I've had contact with are caring, average folks that want nothing but the best for their community.

It's the bad apples like this officer that overshadow the many many good ones thanklessly putting their lives on the line daily, and that is a shame.