After reading about Demetrius Johnson in the paper, it makes me wonder how much of the story is missing, because to our knowledge, it wasn't videotaped. Demetrius Johnson is made out as the kid with a long rap sheet that deserved to go to prison. That may be true, or not, but we will never know, after dying in the hands of the police. Unfortunately, the truth about Demetrius Johnson's death, likely died with him. What little we do know, is that getting pulled over by police for a traffic offense, can be potentially deadly nowadays.
I don't condone what Demetrius Johnson did by running from and fighting with police; that is not the point to this little commentary. The point is, it seems to me that we have police who taser a person multiple times for a traffic offense, the person dies, and the police get paid leave until it is determined to be a justified killing. At the same time, we have Jerome Ersland, a private citizen, standing trial for murder while protecting his business, and his employees, from an armed robber. This is exactly backwards. It's the police who have a higher degree of care to the people, who should be more careful protecting the public, not tasering someone for a traffic offense.
If Jerome Ersland went too far, then there is no doubt that the police went too far also. There is no difference between the two situations. If one is murder, the other is too. I have been practicing law for 35 years - Ersland probably should have been charged, but not for 1st degree murder.
Mickey
