“I’m very sorry. It was a very, very bad thing to have done, and I’m really very ashamed of myself.”
We are deeply sorry that anyone might have been offended by our little bit of cold-blooded murder. Not, y’know, sorry enough to do anything of substance; but really, really, very sorry indeed.
American juries routinely do the same thing. We just love us some cops.
Except it wasn’t cold blooded murder, at all. It’s ridiculous to suggest it was anything of the kind. It was excessive force that lead to an unfortunate conclusion. Very, very few people ever die from being pushed to the ground. I’m not defending the police officer in question, who definitely has some anger-management issues, and clearly shouldn’t be a cop, but using absurd hyperbole hurts your argument, it doesn’t help it.
Death in the commission of a crime is an illegal homicide of some kind; since the police officer has gotten away with it, we may as well call it murder. Now, whether it was a cold-blooded murder is something that’s going to depend on your definition, so is pointless/rewarding to argue about (delete whichever does not apply).
For myself, the assault looked quite deliberate: the police officer meant to do harm to Tomlinson while his back was turned. That he didn’t take time to consider whether the assault would kill Tomlinson doesn’t make it hot-blooded. One could argue that deciding, despite all incentives to be otherwise, to be the kind of person who assaults and expects to get away with it because of his uniform and the circumstances is a pretty calculating move.
The ‘eggshell skull’ doctrine has been hanging around Common Law since quite some time ago (I’m not historian enough to say when; but it was hoary with age long before Tomlinson was at issue), and the attack was unprovoked, wholly unnecessary, and against somebody whose back was turned, no less. If the latter doesn’t constitute ‘cold blood’, and the former ‘murder’, I stand corrected; but I definitely did not intend hyperbole.
The fact that the cop who killed him had a record of abusive and criminal behavior that probably should have precluded a career in burger flipping, much less policing, is just icing on the cake, and makes the Met, as an institution, look either guilty or deeply incompetent, as well as the officer personally.
There’s a key factor you’re missing.
A teenage kid who stands lookout for a drug deal gone wrong is guilty of murder.
A cop who shoots somebody in the back is a hero.
And we need to support our heroes. They are rare in this day and age.
how about the people who proclaimed the death due to natural causes? innocent as-well i suppose, just doing their job.
what about the fact it took four years for any apology despite irrefutable evidence being in the public domain a week after the event.
the whole system is rammed with violent thugs, the arbitrary powerfull and those who would do anything to protect themselves. - To this day, i still cross the road when i see a police officer.
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