Amber Guyger may or may not have intentionally murdered Botham Jean, but she definitely killed him while he was in his own apartment. Seeing her actions in the most favorable light, she went to the wrong apartment, failed to notice that she was not in her own apartment, and killed a man, then changed her story several times. Even if you think she does not deserve prison time over this--a big if, but go with me here--even if Amber Guyger does not belong in prison, there is some distance between prison and continued employment on the police force. There are intermediate positions between "she should be convicted of murder" and "she should continue on the public payroll carrying a gun to enforce laws and make arrests." One of those positions is "perhaps this is not someone we can trust to protect public safety and enforce laws, even while the legal justice system sorts out what crimes she may have committed."
There are basic competence issues here! Police officers have to be able to show up at the addresses they're called to--wouldn't a police officer who can't tell when she's in her own apartment be a liability when being called in a hurry to an unknown address where a crime was being committed?
Even if you think Guyger would have been behaving reasonably for immediately killing an intruder in her own apartment, she wasn't in her apartment, and we're to believe--the sympathetic understanding of the situation is that--she couldn't recognize that basic fact. Who cannot understand the idea that a person can be disqualified from holding a specific job for something short of criminal behavior?
Cruz' remarks were responding to O'Rourke's interview with Dallas television station KDFW , in which the Democrat was asked whether Guyger should be fired. O'Rourke said he didn't "understand how anyone can come to any other conclusion."
But Ted Cruz knows what's important: "It may well be that two lives were destroyed that night." Cruz told Houston television station KRIV on Saturday that the Sept. 6 shooting of 26-year-old Botham Jean may be something worse than a "horrific misunderstanding" but cautioned against early conclusions.
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From the Associated Press Bureau in Houston
Republican Senator Cruz of Texas says he wishes Democrats weren't "so quick to always blame the police officer" after challenger Beto O'Rourke suggested that a white officer who shot and killed a black neighbor should be fired.
"It may well be that two lives were destroyed that night," the Republican said on Saturday. His comments came after O'Rourke focused on the killing at a rally Friday at the Good Street Baptist Church in Dallas.
See also: ews.com/42e53616be27442a8a3ad9cd09467a4b
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The Dallas Morning News is the paper with the largest circulation in Texas and, despite the headline, boiled the glaring facts in this case and the political repartees quite sensitively, I think:
WASHINGTON -- Senator Ted Cruz lashed out at his Democratic challenger, U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, in a television interview on the Fox affiliate for agreeing that the Dallas police officer who shot an unarmed black man in his own apartment should be fired.
Here's Cruz's full comment:
It's a tragic situation where everyone is horrified by what happened. And it may well be that two lives were destroyed that night. That obviously the individual that was at home in his apartment and found himself murdered--that is horrific and a nightmare. As I understand it, the police officer's story is that she was mistaken she was confused she thought she was in her apartment and was instead in his and thought he was an intruder. It's possible what happened was a horrifying and horrific misunderstanding. Or it may be something else. And that's why we have a legal justice system, to actually learn what the facts are, learn what happened. I wish Beto O'Rourke and Democrats weren't so quick to always blame the police officer, always attack the police officer. She may have been in the wrong and if a jury of her peers believes that she behaved wrongly then she'll face the consequences. But I don't think we should jump to conclusions. It may have been just a horrific misunderstanding with horrifying consequences, or it may have been something worse.
Beto O'Rourke on Botham Jean's slaying: 'That is not justice. That is not us'
Jean was shot in his own apartment on the night of Sept. 6 by Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger, who told authorities that she had parked on the wrong floor and mistook Jean's apartment as her own. Guyger was charged with manslaughter and put on paid administrative leave.
The killing has generated a huge national outcry, primarily since many details continue to be disputed.
An O'Rourke spokesman said that the El Paso Democrat also said there should be a full investigation and accountability for what occurred. The Senate hopeful also spoke at length about Jean at the rally, wondering how it can be "in this day and age, in this very year, in this community, that a young man, African-American, in his own apartment, is shot and killed by police officer."
O'Rourke, in particular, criticized the police's decision on the day of Jean's funeral to release information from a search warrant that showed marijuana was found in Jean's apartment. "That is not justice," he said, referring to unarmed black residents being shot by white police officers. "That is not us. That can and must change."
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