The facts of this case clearly support criminal charges. Whether they support a conviction will be for the jury to decide.

As Robert Tolan and his cousin approached the front door, officers, who erroneously had been advised Tolan was driving a stolen car, arrived and ordered the pair to the ground. Tolan family members said that as they attempted to tell officers about the mistake, police pushed the young manÂ’s mother against a wall.

Tolan attempted to rise to protest and was wounded as Cotton fired his weapon multiple times. Lawyers for Tolan, who is black, have argued that the shooting resulted from racial profiling by white law officers.

The problem is that there was never really any reason to suspect that Tolan was engaged in any criminal activity. He was just a black guy driving in a nice area in a nice car – must be a criminal. And having witnessed the unprovoked assault on his mother by a rogue cop, Tolan had the audacity to try to stand up – and was grievously wounded as the cop unloaded his gun into him. While I’ll be the first to admit that I have a pro-police bias (my brother is a cop), I can’t see any justification for the conduct of Sgt. Jeffery Cotton. If there is any, let him present it at trial.

Posted by: Greg at 12:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 232 words, total size 1 kb.