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Honored Contributor
Posts: 8,736
Registered: ‎02-19-2014

Re: Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger Found Guilty

From my privileged position, I've never had a bad interaction with police. I see most of them as great. I also see that there are some bad ones, just as there are in any profession. But since this profession literally holds my life and your life in their hands whenever they are in contact with us, that means the stakes are much higher. They need to have much better than average judgement. All of the bad and irresponsible ones need to be weeded out of the job for everyone's safety.

 

Amber had a physical relationship with her patrol partner, she worked while sleep impaired, sent personal and apparently explicit images while she was supposed to be working, possibly texted while driving, and (crucially) she destroyed evidence. She showed terrible, wrong judgement repeatedly. Then she trespassed and then (most crucially of all) killed someone who posed no threat. To me, though maybe not to others, that is a bad officer. In my opinion good officers would not want her representing them.

 

Amber (not all police) lost the benefit of the doubt by her own actions in aggregate.

When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.
"Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
Honored Contributor
Posts: 10,168
Registered: ‎03-14-2010

Re: Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger Found Guilty

[ Edited ]

Another resident or former resident said he had parked on the wrong floor of the parking garage and mistakenly gone to the wrong apartment that was in the same location as his...except different floor. Said he had done it 10-12 times. Who the heck would design an apartment building with a parking garage like that? Makes it plausible that she could have mistaken her location....but the red doormat should have been a huge flag she wasn’t in the right place...no matter how distracted she was.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 19,658
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger Found Guilty


@Foxxee wrote:

It puzzled me she didn't recognize the furniture wasn't hers when she opened the door.  That's the first thing I'd notice.  

 

Did anyone ask her that question? 


 

@Foxxee 

 

She claimed the room was dark and she could only see his silhouette and couldn't see his hands (if he may have held a weapon).

 

But testimony showed that he was on the couch, watching tv and eating ice cream when she entered.

 

I would think the light from a tv would've helped her see him more clearly.

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.
Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,265
Registered: ‎03-27-2012

Re: Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger Found Guilty

"...This has nothing to do with the victim being Black or the police officer being a Woman and White. This also has nothing to do with not respecting law enforcement officials." @icezeus 

 

 

@icezeus, I agree with you and have hope that race wasn't in the mind of the jury when they made their decision. I also hope that it wasn't a matter of the jury sending a message to law enforcement that they can't get away with killing just because they wear a badge.

 

My hope is that it was a message that, whoever you are, if you kill an innocent, unarmed person there will be consequences. 

 

However, I also think it would be naive not to recognize, after hearing the interviews with bystanders outside the courthouse, that both race and police brutality are at the forefront in the minds of the public--perhaps understandably. But again, I hope it wasn't forefront in the minds of the jurors and there doesn't appear to be any evidence that is was.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 8,736
Registered: ‎02-19-2014

Re: Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger Found Guilty

I do think that now that we have a guilty verdict, attention needs to turn to that ridiculous apartment building. They need a new manager. Fix the locks so that they lock when closed and so that the wrong keys don't fit in them. Put up floor signs everywhere, especially in the garage and at the elevators. Color code the floors. Change the apartment numbers to indicate the floor number more clearly. Put the numbers on the doors like a normal apartment building.

 

Make it so that even drunk people will know which floor they are on. If they don't, they deserve to get sued into insolvency.

When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.
"Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
Valued Contributor
Posts: 794
Registered: ‎05-25-2016

Re: Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger Found Guilty

I thought the 911 tape was damaging to her defense. She said, to the 911 operator, that she would lose her job over this and repeated many times she thought she was in her apartment. 

 

I didn’t hear the 911 operator or Amber say anything about CPR or if the victim was breathing or conscious. Amber Guyger sounded very distraught, but to me it sounded like she was more worried about herself than Botham Jean. 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 19,658
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger Found Guilty

The parking garage floors are marked in large painted numbers photos were introduced into evidence.

 

What sticks in my mind is that she was still in uniform with her utility belt on, including a taser and pepper spray, so a lethal weapon was not her only choice to protect herself.

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.
Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,527
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger Found Guilty


@GAQShopr53 wrote:

@esmerelda wrote:

@GAQShopr53  No, that's what I was asking her.  Was she saying she didn't believe Amber when she said it was a mistake.  If she doesn't believe that, does she believe what happened was what Amber intended.

 

I haven't followed closely.  Was she (Amber) given an offer to plead guilty to a lesser charge...like manslaughter?


@esmerelda I read today in a new feed that the jury had the option of murder or manslaughter.


@GAQShopr53  I understand that.  What I'm wondering is if she was given the option to plead guilty to manslaughter (and avoid a trial) instead of going to trial for murder. 

*********************
Keepin' it real.
Honored Contributor
Posts: 19,658
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger Found Guilty

[ Edited ]

@Ruby Laine wrote:

I thought the 911 tape was damaging to her defense. She said, to the 911 operator, that she would lose her job over this and repeated many times she thought she was in her apartment. 

 

I didn’t hear the 911 operator or Amber say anything about CPR or if the victim was breathing or conscious. Amber Guyger sounded very distraught, but to me it sounded like she was more worried about herself than Botham Jean. 


 

@Ruby Laine 

 

During testimony, she claimed she was giving him chest compressions with one hand, while she had her cellphone in the other, talking to 911 dispatch.

 

Real effective CPR, huh?

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.
Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,219
Registered: ‎07-27-2015

Re: Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger Found Guilty


@esmerelda wrote:

@GAQShopr53 wrote:

@esmerelda wrote:

@GAQShopr53  No, that's what I was asking her.  Was she saying she didn't believe Amber when she said it was a mistake.  If she doesn't believe that, does she believe what happened was what Amber intended.

 

I haven't followed closely.  Was she (Amber) given an offer to plead guilty to a lesser charge...like manslaughter?


@esmerelda I read today in a new feed that the jury had the option of murder or manslaughter.


@GAQShopr53  I understand that.  What I'm wondering is if she was given the option to plead guilty to manslaughter (and avoid a trial) instead of going to trial for murder. 


@esmerelda I have never read anything about a plea offering before the trial but that doesn't  mean there was not one on the table.