It is clear that Kim Potter, the cop who shot Dante Wright, had not intended to shoot him. That is obvious from the film of her immediately after the shooting. She certainly should be dismissed from the police force, she obviously wasn’t trained very well, but I have three reactions to the verdict.
First, one of the reasons police-civilian interactions are tension-filled events is because of the prevalence of guns in this country. If a cop pulls over a driver in Sweden or France, that cop doesn’t presume that the driver has a gun in the car. In this country you have to assume the driver does have a weapon.
Second, I thought the celebration by Mr. Wright’s family after the verdict was disgusting. This was a tragedy for everybody, and you don’t celebrate tragedies. This shooting was on a whole different level than the murder of George Floyd or Ahmaud Arbery.
Third, I can’t help wondering if the jury was influenced because the cop was female. Did some jury members have some unspoken bias against the whole idea of a woman on the police force? I think that is quite possible.
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