Fort Worth police get a call that a man is holding a knife and banging on a door. Police show up and it turns out it's a BBQ fork. Police officer demands the guy drop the fork and get on the ground. The guy complies and as the guys hands are above his head and he is on his knees, the cop shoots him with a shotgun. Fort Worth DA charges the officer and they go to trial.
There is dash-cam footage of all of this. No one denies that the guy shot complied with every single order, in a timely fashion and no one denies that the victim didn't deserve to be shot. The cops only defense is that it was an accident, THE GUN FIRED ITSELF, and that he was never fully trained to use the shotgun (non of which, I think, are valid excuses. Also, have any of your guns ever "fired itself"?) The jury deliberates for ONE day and the judge calls a mistrial due to a hung jury.
The DA has said they aren't going to re-try the case.
This is where I have a problem with police:
The DA isn't going to re-try the case because this has already caused bad relations between the DA's office and FWPD. During the trial, police officers would intentionally give bad testimony in other trials to try to make the DA's office look like idiots (who cares if a few bad guys get back on the street if we can make the DA look bad).
During the trial, the police also filled the court room with officers in uniform in an attempt to intimidate the prosecution and the jury.
I get that there are always going to be bad cops. When a bad cop is discovered, he/she should be relieved of duty and face the consequences for their actions. They should not be protected by an entire police force and treated as if they are some sort of hero.
At best officer Courtney Johnson is a scared, trigger happy, wimp that isn't fit to be a police officer. At worst, he's a racist POS that deserves to go to jail. Officer Courtney Johnson is a disgrace to the badge and the police should be pissed off that his actions have damaged the FWPD image, not rally around him for shooting an unarmed, mentally handicapped citizen who complied with every order that was give.
Citizens of Fort Worth should also be angry because a lot of their tax money is probably going to go to the victim in the civil suit.
There is dash-cam footage of all of this. No one denies that the guy shot complied with every single order, in a timely fashion and no one denies that the victim didn't deserve to be shot. The cops only defense is that it was an accident, THE GUN FIRED ITSELF, and that he was never fully trained to use the shotgun (non of which, I think, are valid excuses. Also, have any of your guns ever "fired itself"?) The jury deliberates for ONE day and the judge calls a mistrial due to a hung jury.
The DA has said they aren't going to re-try the case.
This is where I have a problem with police:
The DA isn't going to re-try the case because this has already caused bad relations between the DA's office and FWPD. During the trial, police officers would intentionally give bad testimony in other trials to try to make the DA's office look like idiots (who cares if a few bad guys get back on the street if we can make the DA look bad).
During the trial, the police also filled the court room with officers in uniform in an attempt to intimidate the prosecution and the jury.
I get that there are always going to be bad cops. When a bad cop is discovered, he/she should be relieved of duty and face the consequences for their actions. They should not be protected by an entire police force and treated as if they are some sort of hero.
At best officer Courtney Johnson is a scared, trigger happy, wimp that isn't fit to be a police officer. At worst, he's a racist POS that deserves to go to jail. Officer Courtney Johnson is a disgrace to the badge and the police should be pissed off that his actions have damaged the FWPD image, not rally around him for shooting an unarmed, mentally handicapped citizen who complied with every order that was give.
Citizens of Fort Worth should also be angry because a lot of their tax money is probably going to go to the victim in the civil suit.
