Well now you have. I don't think this cop should go to jail because of an accident. It was an accident. There was no criminal intent. At what point do we as Americans stop an realize that we are sending people to prison despite zero criminal intent?
Again, who has suggested sending this officer to prison? Not sure why you keep repeating that.
So here is the thing with negligence. Our kids display it all the time and other kids get hurt simply because their kids. Now replace kids with police or military. The truth is that there are professions out there where negligence means more than it does in other professions. If I as a business guy display negligence no one gets hurt. If I were a fireman and I neglected to put the hose on the right place and as a result a colleague gets hurt hence negligence thus prison time.
I simply don't think we should believe simple negligence as we see in this video should be equated to a criminal act. It is not.
Right. It is not a criminal act. It does show that department needs some serious retraining on firearms and firearm safety.
Good parents punish negligence in children, especially when that negligence causes undue harm to others. And a good society punishes negligence in adults, especially when they occupy positions of power and authority.
Parents don't send their kids to jail when they spill their milk. Should he lose his job? Probably. Should he be charged with a crime? No.
Exercising a reckless disregard for the safety of others is criminal and intentional to some degree. If someone blindly pushed a rock over a bridge and it crushed another person to death, that should be treated as a crime even though the person responsible did not intend to crush anyone.
One would have to prove that this cop was exercising a reckless disregard for the safety of others. A negligent discharge while negligent doesn't mean a willful exercising of reckless disregard.
Technology helps. During the first Gulf War the ratio was 17%. Today it's around 1%.
The recent / current ME wars are different that Desert Storm- which was a conventional force on force engagement. Those tend to have more friendly fire incidents.