Could Ryan Moats have been shot?
The quoted blog post below poses a simple question. I think everybody knows that an officer as monumentally "challenged" as Powell might well have shot Moats. He exhibited the sense of a half-wit in a lynch mob. But the questions go deeper:
Had Ryan Moats Lost His Cool: "To call Police Officer Robert Powell the poster-boy for the abuse of petty power by a fool with a gun is easy. Even his chief is disgusted by his monumental indiscretion. So do we applaud Moats for having kept his cool, having stopped and obeyed rather than ignored Powell and tried to go inside to his mother-in-law's bedside? Was his choice, missing the one opportunity to say good-bye to a dying woman, the right one given the possibility that Powell would have been so very upset at not being shown the obsequience due him that he would have physically subdued, perhaps even shot, Ryan Moats?"
(Via Simple Justice.)
I think most people who have followed this story wonder:
If Powell will be fired? And if not, why the hell not? Somebody who is capable of doing what he did is not fit to carry a badge and gun, and I'm sure most police officers would agree. He is the type of cop that gives other officers a bad name. Most officers are good and decent people. And then there are the guys like this.
If he will not be fired, what will be done to "rehabilitate" or educate the young man to make sure that he has the tools to keep his ego in check and exercise appropriate discretion on the job.
If he is allowed to stay on the job, when he really hurts somebody, will the police department that knowingly employs him after the Moats incident be any more liable?
