Latest in a series of posts in the wake of the George Floyd murder
December 9 news video
Add the Columbus, Ohio, case of Casey Goodson, killed by a police officer in front of his home December 4, to the necrology list of what Gadfly calls “first contact” situations.
This case probably has flown under your radar because there is no body cam footage or witness video.
Nothing visually shareable to cause “sensational” national coverage.
The details, the facts, are particularly obscure here even going on three weeks after the incident.
The Columbus police department apparently has a history of such incidents and a history of being charged with systemic racism.
Our police department has neither of those histories, but Gadfly is looking forward to the promised Public Safety committee meeting in January, where, among other things, we might hear how our department is trained to handle such situations.
What troubles Gadfly is seeing police departments/unions time and again defend officers in such situations by saying they acted properly according to their training.
Which means we should hear about that training, especially applied to a specific situation.
Gadfly has wondered aloud here several times about whether our department uses such situations as the GeorgeFloyd as opportunities to review training with officers.
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“What we know about the fatal shooting of Casey Goodson Jr.,” Columbus Dispatch, December 17, 2020.
The police union is the worst thing that ever happened to “law enforcement”.