Tou Thao was convicted of manslaughter charges for his part in George Floyd's death in May 2020.
  • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    633·
    1 year ago

    Good, but it kinda ticks me off the he gets to serve this sentence at the same time he’s seeing a 3-year for the civil rights conviction… like rather than 8 years, it maxes out at 5, and that’s some bullshit.

    All four former police officers involved in the incident were convicted on federal civil rights charges, in addition to state murder charges for Mr Chauvin. Ex-officers Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Thao, who was sentenced to three and a half years over his civil rights conviction, will serve the 57 months at the same time.

  • LeadSoldier@lemmy.world
    544·
    1 year ago

    He is doing 57 months because he is serving for multiple crimes simultaneously.

    Police who violate the law should not be allowed anything but the maximum sentence non-concurrent with other crimes.

    But cops protect those who have power and those who have power. Don’t want to piss off the cops so here we are.

    • acosmichippo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      122·
      1 year ago

      I don’t even understand why concurrent sentences exist. if you do multiple crimes you should serve time for them all, regardless of who you are.

      • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
        20·
        1 year ago

        Because prison is supposed to be about rehabilitation and not punishment. If you ban concurrent sentences, you might as well just shoot anyone with 50+ years of consecutive time in the head, it’s a whole lot more humane.

      • zaph@lemmy.world
        11·
        1 year ago

        It makes some sense when multiple crimes were committed but it was one event. Robbing a liquor store becomes several different crimes with their own max sentences. Sure there were multiple laws broken but they only did one thing. The issue is how grey that line becomes and how much authority a judge has over a crime’s punishment and when you factor in things like if the robber shot the clerk.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    26·
    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    A former Minneapolis police officer has been sentenced to 57 months (almost five years) in prison for his role in the death of George Floyd.

    The officer, Tou Thao, was found guilty of aiding and abetting manslaughter by a Minnesota judge in May.

    Ex-officers Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

    Thao, who was sentenced to three and a half years over his civil rights conviction, will serve the 57 months at the same time.

    The former officer had waived his right to a jury trial in the manslaughter case, opting instead for Judge Peter Cahill to determine the verdict.

    Judge Cahill added that Thao’s actions “were even more unreasonable in light of the fact that he was under a duty to intervene to stop other officers’ excessive use of force and was trained to render medical aid”.

    I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Warfarin@lemmy.world
    222·
    1 year ago

    Imagine someone dying from a drug overdose and you get the blame for it when he was a danger to himself and everyone around him thrashing around

  • Tb0n3@sh.itjust.works
    340·
    1 year ago

    Entirely political. Police do the same thing all over but because it was a black man on cellphone video the entire black community rioted and burned everything down for a month. Should they have been convicted? Probably. Was it deliberate? Most likely not. Dude was hopped up on fentanyl.

      • Tb0n3@sh.itjust.works
        216·
        1 year ago

        Oh sorry my bad. What I meant to say is he was high on drugs and had an extensive criminal history. He started the encounter by fighting the police. Don’t fight the police.

        • philpo@feddit.de
          9·
          1 year ago

          Neither point is any reason to even remotely justify what happened to him. Not even one bit.

          • Tb0n3@sh.itjust.works
            114·
            1 year ago

            Why not? If somebody fights against you as a cop you’ll be less likely to let up and allow them room to escape. Most people would be fine in that situation. It was kind of a freak accident.

        • Warfarin@lemmy.world
          112·
          1 year ago

          Sadly the left adore the race baiting politics of this stunt

          They need this to feel virtuous. They ignore all the evidence of saint fentanyl and his drug journey