What do you think? Did the judge get the sentense right? I think so. Though the prosecution was asking for seven years.
I guess to answer the question you really have to think “what is the criminal justice system supposed to do? I’ve always thought it’s purpose was to reform criminals and appropreatly punish those who do bad things, or make careless mistakes.
I think this was a case of a VERY careless mistake that should have never happened. This ex-cop mistakenly pulled out her actual weapon instead of her tazer gun, and pulled the trigger. You can hear her on the audio just after realizing what she had done.
Now, I’m not a cop, never have been, never want to be. But I sincerely respect what they do because there is no way I would want to be put in their situations. They have to make decisions in the heat of the moment, in a split seconds time, and then spend months, years, or decades having to rationalize it.
I don’t know how police officers wear both a gun AND a tazer when both, from what I’ve seen on the news and police videos, are almost identical in size and shape. Unless you make the tazer a freakingly bright different color than the actual weapon so when an officer pulls one out they know which one they have in their hand, I guess sure, mistakes can be made. I’m not even sure if having it a different color would help when you have to decide RIGHT NOW!
I think Kim is truly remorseful of what she did. Had I been the one on trial, I don’t think I could have looked Daunte’s family in the face either. I would have done everything I could to avoid eye contact. She is already going to live with the greaf for the rest of her life. How could she bear to look the family in the eye and bear that too? I don’t think I could.
I don’t want to say I know what the family of Daunte is going through, because I don’t. But I do appreciate that they would have wanted the maximum penalty for his death. But that is why we have judges to make these kind of decisions. That’s why we call them “Judges”. They are the ones that ultimately have to make the right call.
The judge heard that the prosecution wanted seven years. She also heard that the defense wanted probation. In my eyes, neither of them would have been appropriate. Had it been me in the position of judge, I probably would have sentensed Kim to three years. Yes, it was a senseless mistake that needs to be punished, but I’d also consider that there was no need for reform. I don’t believe that she would ever do something like this again.
It’s my sincere hope that when Kim gets out of prison that she’ll be able to continue on in her life. It is also my sincere wish that the family of Daunte will be able to move on as well. But I don’t want either side to forget.
We need additional police reform. We need additional police training so this NEVER happens again. We need more pay for police to make it an attractive career. We need more police officers so that the ones that we already have don’t feel so overwhelmed. There is a LONG way to go to get the police situation to where it needs to be, but we CAN get there. We just need help.
A Little Bit of This and That 