I've thought about this the last few days. I've read a lot of tweets and people's reactions. Hell, even my own reaction was she's a murderer and the hell with her.
Although she did kill someone out of incompetence and she's a cop who we hold to a higher standard because of training, I don't think anyone can argue she did it on purpose. She was distracted, made a mistake and went to the wrong appartment, was hyper focused on texting and over reacted (I'm sure she was scared/confused when she saw a man when she was expecting to be home.) Her incompetence and thought process of grabbing her gun and shooting because of the mentality (like GF mentioned) hold your ground and shoot first, ask questions later took a man's life who was eating ice cream in the comfort and safety of his own home.
Someone is dead. A precious, innocent life was violently, and unexpectedly robbed from his family and friends. Nothing will ever fix that.
Again, I've been thinking about this and her sentence. My first reaction was, well, that's bull ****. My second reaction was thinking of other's reactions and thinking this was injustice.
After some time to reflect, I'm fine with her sentencing. I don't think she deserves the same sentence as someone who murders someone on purpose (you get what I'm saying, I hope.)
I think people are thinking of other injustices, ludicrous sentences, history between cops and blacks, race, and wanting her to pay for it or thinking that's why she got handed an easy sentence.
10 years or 5 years, at least to me, isn't easy. I think, our mentality of lock em up, throw the books at 'em, and throw away the key is so out dated. We need, as a society, to rehabilitate criminals. We need to make their sentences something that focuses on their and society's betterment. Her being in prison for life or longer really does nobody good.
The victim's brother is a better man than I am. If he can forgive her, then why can't I?
There's a lot of really hurt people over this. Reading Twitter makes me sad, honestly. I hope racial tensions can be mended. I hope racial injustices are fixed and white people are held accountable to their crimes and black people (minorities) don't keep getting the short end of the stick. I hope police brutality and trigger happy cops become a thing of the past. I hope that black people don't have to fear eating ice cream in their own homes and still being shot by cops. - Yeah, there are always going to be bad people and bad things that happen, but damn we can do better.