MICHAEL LETTS: Cops are human, too

It started as a traffic stop and ended in a young man’s death, but how culpable is an officer who simply made a mistake?

Before we race to get the pitchforks, we should stop to remember that as tragic as this is, the matter of intention is an entirely different matter, and that is what still remains to be proven.

We tend to forget that cops are also human — they are subject to mistakes and errors, just like anyone else.

Sometimes all of the training in the world cannot prepare you for that split-second decision when a gun is pointed at your face. There is no time to think, no room for inner or vocal debate, when an assailant is hysterical, screaming and pointing a loaded weapon at your face. So at what point is it right to fire your weapon to protect yourself?

It is the situation that former Minnesota Police Officer Kim Potter found herself in one April day in Brooklyn Center.

Potter did everything right at first — when a suspect resisted arrest, she reached for her Taser to subdue him and take him into custody.

Unfortunately, she grabbed the wrong item, her fingers frantically seeking purchase until they closed around what she thought was a taser. Unfortunately, she had reached for the wrong holster in her panic, and she had discharged not her Taser but her firearm, wounding and killing the suspect.

She would face a firestorm of endless media coverage and criticism in the months to follow. All the while, she was in the middle of a highly volatile trial that would change her life forever. While everyone sat on their couches and judged from afar, she anxiously awaited a trial that would determine her fate.

All over a mistake.

Law enforcement does not have it easy. It is not like a desk or retail job, where the assumption of safety is a given. No, police have it far, far worse — every day, squarely facing down danger, risking their lives in the name of public safety. Shouldn’t they have the right to protect themselves?

It is hard to believe that Potter set out to work that day with vengeance in mind, determined to kill. Instead, she was doing her job and making a traffic stop for expired tags and an arrest warrant.

Her reaction, a mix of surprise and horror, was more than evident on the tape that would determine her fate. Many viewing the video heard the panic in her voice, felt the shock and surprise, but still, a man’s life was lost that day, and someone had to pay for it.

Attorneys would take two very different approaches, with defense attorneys arguing that Potter’s actions were not criminal and reasonable for Taser use. Prosecutors claimed she was both reckless and negligent. In the end, the video evidence was too overpowering, and Potter was convicted of both first- and second-degree manslaughter.

It proves that it is harder to look away when videographic evidence allows you to see a loss firsthand. It played an enormous role in cases for Derek Chauvin and the trio convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery, and it ended up aiding in Potter’s conviction, as well.

However, the video clearly showed the surprise at the gun and the horror Potter felt when she saw what she had done.

Was it an act? Doubtful, but we will never know. Everyone can play judge and jury for themselves, but the truth is that two lives were forever changed that day and so unnecessarily.

That is the greatest tragedy of all.