06-26-2020, 03:32 PM
(06-26-2020, 12:13 PM)fredtoast Wrote: The taser in the Brooks case had already been discharged and was no longer "a dangerous weapon" at the time the police shot him in the back. The police knew it had been discharged and was no longer a threat.
Ahh, so now Fred knows exactly what the officer knew at the time of the shooting. Was the taser not a multiple shot taser, most of them are now? If so how can you know that the officer knew that it was empty? Also, do we know for a fact that it was empty or are you assuming this?
Unfortunately for your position on this, the Fulton County DA already established that he believes a taser is a deadly weapon, by dint of the charges he filed in the college kids incident. If you use a deadly weapon on a police officer the police officer is permitted to respond with their own deadly weapon. Additionally, using a deadly weapon against a police officer would go a long way towards establishing that you are a dangerous person.
In this instance your beef should be with the DA, who poisoned a legitimate case, involving the abuse of those college kids, to score political points in this instance. Exactly like Mosby in Baltimore and expect similar results.
As a defense attorney you should actually be all over this. The fact that you aren't lends me to conclude that you are also blinded by ideology in this instance and aren't looking at this from a legal perspective. Defense counsel in the tasing of the college students asks for dismissal of the charges of assault with a deadly weapon as the Fulton County DA has publicly stated that a taser is not a deadly weapon, therefore eliminating the ability to effectively charge the officers with using a deadly weapon. Not only did he use those words, verbatim, but his charging the officer in this shooting with murder absolutely rules out the possibility, legally speaking, that the officer was not warranted in using deadly force. So expect the officers in the tasing of the college students to get off, when they shouldn't.
Then the defense counsel in the shooting case will rightfully point out that the same DA charged police officers with using a deadly weapon when they used their tasers. Again, use of deadly force means police get to respond with deadly force. The Fulton DA poisoned both cases so he could score political points and attempt to quell protests. Either he did it intentionally to ensure all the involved officers are acquitted or he's incompetent. The parallel with the Freddy Grey case is stark, proescutor bungles charges in an attempt to score political points and quell an angry mob. You should expect similar results in the trial phase as well.
