Elements of the 2014 Gregory Hill incident in Florida is certainly problematic to me.
According to a CNN article a jury in Florida awarded a family $4.00 for the 2014 death of Gregory Hill due to a shooting by a police officer. The lawyer of Mr. Hill’s family says that proves “Black Lives Don’t Matter”.
I understand the lawyer’s point which has validity in this case. However, I think it proves that certain lives don’t matter regardless of race. Certainly, any part of a system that awards a family $4.00 for anything is an unrighteous component of that system; that ought to be intuitively obvious and speaks of a system that is somehow out of touch with simple decency.
According to the article:
In deciding damages in the case, the jury awarded Bryant $1 for funeral expenses, and $1 for each child’s “loss of parental companionship, instruction, and guidance and … mental pain and suffering,” verdict forms show. Hill’s children are 7, 10 and 13.
It seems to me that the police officer simply should have retreated until the situation could have been better assessed and until more police and family member help could have arrived to better ascertain and control the situation. It does not appear the police officer was ever in danger. In the case of Mr. Hill, every indication was that Mr. Hill was retreating from the encounter with the police and was not in any way an aggressor.
Now perhaps details of the encounter with Mr. Hill would show that the Police Officer could not retreat and/or was in danger. That possibility is one reason that the police department should openly document publish such details and not leave it up to the news outlets to so report. Each police department should have a website with plenty of storage space for open access in modern times where such details could be ascertained by the public.
Addendum:
In May 2019 a Baytown (Houston area) Texas police officer fatally shot a reportedly mentally ill woman (Pamela Turner) when she took his taser as he was struggling with her. The woman shouted that she was pregnant; however, authorities have said their later examination of her shows she was not pregnant.
In any case, once again, it seems the police officer should have retreated until help arrived. The woman should have not been combative; however, the police officers should cease trying to contain a combative person alone as long as the person can be rendered harmless until help arrives. A video of the Baytown, Texas Incident may be found here.
I give some thoughts onf police conduct here.
References:
Gregory Hill Case – Plaintiff Lawsuit
Gregory Hill Case – Police Officer’s Response
Gregory Hill Case -Verdict Form
USA Today Research on Internal Disciplining of Police Officers
