George Costanza
A Friendly Liberal
- Thread starter
- #21
Citizen Smith is a successful drug dealer. So far, he's managed to stay under the radar with his activities. The only thing he has on his record is some unpaid parking ticket. Today, he's on his way to Taylor Elementary School to sell some more drugs to the kids but has to hurry because he's running late. Smith rolls through a stop sign without making a full stop. He sees a police car, hears the siren and sees the lights. Problem is that Smith has a full stash of drugs he intended to sell at the school and can't afford to be caught with them in his possession. He decides to race towards the school. As the chase proceeds down Taylor Avenue, Smith figures that the police car will be forced to ease up, so Smith drives even faster. Four seconds later, Smith's red car runs over two Taylor Elementary School children, killing them both.
Smith hires a lawyer named Constanza. His defense is that Officer Jones, the officer in the police car, decided to go in pursuit of a motorist for running a stop sign. No other reason. He could have recorded the license plate number of the red car and gone by the guy's house later in the afternoon to arrest him there for evading. But he chose not to do that and to initiate a pursuit, thereby causing the red car driver to try to get away. As the chase approached Taylor Elementary School, Officer Jones could easily have terminated the chase, but he chose not to. In fact, he increased the tempo of the chase, causing the red car driver to speed even faster, killing the two children. Officer Jones deliberately performed an act, the natural consequences of which are dangerous to life, knowing that the conduct endangers the life of another but acting with conscious disregard for that risk of life, and that Officer Jones (along with the driver of the red car) should be prosecuted for second degree murder.
The charges against Smith are dropped. Officer Jones is put on temporary suspension, pending the outcome of an investigation, and Smith goes back to selling drugs to elementary school kids.
Well done. Let's analyze:
First off, no one is trying to absolve the red car driver (Smith in your example) of anything. In either example, Smith would be prosecuted for second degree murder, and properly so. (Did you get that, CG?)
The question is, what about the cop? In all of these case, if the cop elects not to go in pursuit, there isn't going to be a high speed chase, period. Everyone pretty much agrees that there are situations where high speed chases are necessary - where the crime involved is very serious and the officer knows that. The tough cases, and the ones causing all the controversy, are the ones where the reason for the chase is a minor one, usually just a minor traffic violation where nothing more is known to the officer at the time he goes in pursuit.
It is just common sense that the risk to society cause by high speed chases outweighs the benefit to society of apprehending someone following a high speed chase merely to give them a ticket for running a stop sign.
The OP takes this one to a slightly higher level. Shouldn't the police be held responsible for initiating high speed chases for some minor reason, when the chase results in the death of an innocent civilian? I think they should.