Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by beeflet | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

beeflet

[flagged]

View on HN

Earlier today, an ICE officer murdered a woman, a story that's kind of dominated the news cycle today.

I think they may get away with it. Our head-of-state is already describing it as an act of self-defense.

The president can do jack shit to stop a state prosecution, one of the blessed advantages of federalism.

That may be the case, I am not an expert in law. I hope there is some type of repercussion for the cop that point-blanks a random driver.

I just don't hold much faith in the separation of power between state and federal government, it sounds like there has been a massive erosion of this barrier since the civil war and the abuse of the commerce clause and all that.

A cop did not do this, an ice agent did. It might sound trivial, but it very much isn’t when it comes to prosecution in this circumstance.

this is not true. why is this upvoted? first of all, ICE is federal. second, they were acting as part of "federal official" duties. it will be trivial to move any state prosecution to federal court.

Federal officers aren't immune from state prosecution just because they're federal officers, or because they're doing their federal duties at the moment. They also have to be acting in accord with their federal duties. See, e.g., https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/are-federal-officials-i... (although that's not in response to the current incident).

They will certainly attempt to dismiss any charges, but they are far from guaranteed that they will be successful.

They’re literally on camera doing ice work (prior to the killing), virtually guaranteed it’ll count.

That doesn't matter. It's not enough that they were doing their job beforehand, their actions at stake have to comport with their actual duties.

So is it part of their official duties to walk in front of a car of someone who is trying to leave the scene, alter their path when the car turns out of the way to ensure they remain in their way, and then shoot the driver? Or is that merely the kind of excessive force that's in contravention of their training and not part of their job role?

Watch the video, it’s obvious. The person was stopped as part of an ice directive.

Maybe he cuts their federal funding by $10Bn until they drop the charge. Seems to be roughly the playbook.

They definitely get away with it. To be punished requires:

1. Prosecution. US wont because of trump. State might not because of some threat from trump.

2. Proof beyond reasonable doubt. Video can make case for self defence so bar is high.

3. No presidential pardon.

1. Minnesota will absolutely prosecute, Walz has already announced a criminal investigation.

2. We'll let the jury decide but ICE is specifically trained not to shoot at moving vehicles and not to approach them from the front.

3. The president can't pardon someone convicted of murder in a state court, he can only pardon people convicted of federal crimes.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c99knmrx71go

"Minnesota officials say FBI blocked their access to ICE shooting probe"

Not at all unexpected given Trump's sycophants are heading the FBI. Luckily Minnesota is moving forward with their own independent review:

https://www.startribune.com/hennepin-county-prosecutor-attor...

Was it an ICE officer or national guard member?

ICE officer. What a bizarre question to ask.

Not at all bizarre. The national guard has been deployed in several areas of the country to assist ICE.

There's a lot going on so it can be difficult to keep track of, but the Supreme court made Trump call the NG back from the states he had deployed them in.

shot and killed - they haven't even been charged, let alone arraigned for murder yet (they would definitely get not guilty for that - manslaughter at worst given the cirumstances).

They will 100% be charged with murder.

they can be charged with anything, but there's no way this guy is convicted of murder.

anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't been paying attention to the hundreds of analogous situations that have been happening to blacks.

literally just look it up, the exact scenario has already played out before. cop gets off. and I mean literally exact scenario - with two cops, one in front, one to the side, driver (black) tries to drive off, front cop shoots and kills the black guy, is convicted, and acquitted. seriously, look it up.

George Zimmerman stalked Treyvon Martin, shot and killed him and was still acquitted. you think this guy is going to be convicted really?

Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd, which was a decade after the George Zimmerman/Treyvon Martin case.

I wouldn't put the chance of a conviction here at 100%, but it's certainly well above 0%.

? the chauvin case wasn't the same at all. he choked flyod needlessly for 10 minutes. completely unnecessary and good that chauvin was convicted. I follow these cases since I'm part of a police justice group - I've never seen a case similar to what happened here where the officer was convicted. there's just too much precedent that if a car is going towards you the officer is justified in shooting

if you have an example of a similar situation where the cop is convicted I am very very interested.

Yes, our justice system is outright broken since the Supreme Council handed obscene amounts of power to a wannabe dictator, putting him and his Stasi above the law. But that doesn't mean We The People cannot call it like it is - murder.

No. The Constitution is the law, and everyone working for this regime is an anti-American traitor. I'm pretty sure the terror squads are wearing masks because if we could identify them, we would see most have been drawn from so-called "patriot" militias [0] and let loose to attack American cities under the color of law (which apparently now includes executing citizens).

[0] the naming of which also turned out to be another lie, surprise surprise

Reply on news.ycombinator.com