I haven't commented on Ferguson, because Lord knows I don't have anything to say that hasn't already been said repeatedly. But other killings of civilians by police prior to that had put a simple idea in my head: cops who kill or shoot unarmed civilians should be fired. And now seems like an excellent time to propose this plan.
Completely aside from any possible criminal charges, if a law enforcement officer shoots an unarmed person (or kills by other means) except in clear self-defense, that should be the end of his career in law enforcement.
While this would be no substitute for criminal charges, if such a policy were implemented nationwide, it would give police a pretty strong incentive to not shoot people without need.
So let's make it nationwide. Next time we have a Congress that will pass sensible legislation, it should pass a law that:
1) Requires the Department of Justice to maintain a database of all instances where a U.S. law enforcement officer of any kind shoots anyone, or kills or seriously injures anyone by other means than guns, and flags those cases where the person killed or injured was unarmed at the time, giving the names of the officer or officers involved.
2) Requires that any law enforcement agency receiving any Federal aid, directly or indirectly, report all such cases to the DoJ.
3) Requires that any law enforcement agency receiving any Federal aid, directly or indirectly, that employs an officer who is on the list of flagged cases in (1), either demonstrate in an administrative proceeding for that purpose that the preponderance of the evidence shows that the officer was acting in legitimate self-defense, or cease their employment of said officer. Failure to do so would result in loss of Federal aid and the benefits of ongoing coordination with Federal law enforcement agencies. Persons representing the injured person, or the survivors of the deceased, would be permitted to argue and produce evidence to the effect that the killed or injured person had not required the officer to shoot or kill in self-defense.
4) An officer who was exonerated by such a proceeding would no longer be flagged on the DoJ database. An officer who was subject to such a proceeding who was not shown to have acted in appropriate self-defense, would be barred for life from law enforcement work. An officer who shot an unarmed person whose employment was terminated by his police department rather than have to justify his actions in such a proceeding would have go through such a proceeding on his own initiative before being employed by another law enforcement agency.
This would put the burden on the police departments to either get rid of an officer who killed, or demonstrate in a formal proceeding that the officer was acting reasonably. If such a plan were in place, I bet we'd see a significant drop in the number of people killed by police each year.
