If it were in my community, I'd be all over the fire/police commission at city hall to FIRE THE COP and DISMISS THE CHIEF!
Why?
Because the cop arrested a mouthy brat of a teenager who wouldn't shut up?
(some people will see it that way...)
Charged him with "obstruction", which can be virtually anything the cop thinks it is, including "disrespect of cop"...?
For that, you think the officer AND the chief ought to be fired?
No, my friend, that's too much. Waay too much for that...
However, what happened AFTER the arrest, now that is something to get steamed about! And for what happened afterwards, the cop, chief, AND the DA need a serious lesson.
Arresting the kid, taking charge of the situation, ok, maybe it should have been handled better, but its a small matter, or would have been, if they had just used the arrest to remove the kid from the situation, and then dropped it. But they didn't. They kept pressing on, until it at last became clear that it was a losing game for the prosecution. It is THIS lack of good judgment that needs to be corrected.
Only small people fear to be proven wrong. Seems like we have a number of people in this system that just aren't big enough for their duties.
Arresting someone so the officer has control, and can defuse a potentially dangerous situation happens all the time all over. I don't know if its SOP, but it happens constantly.
Arresting someone for the same reason in a situation that isn't likely to get dangerous, just ugly, happens a lot, too. Maybe it shouldn't, but it does. Generally, if there's no real clear threat or violation, these things get dropped right away (once the original situation calms down). Lots of times, people don't even get "booked". But other times?
Other times they take it to court. This time, dropping the charges at this point, shows them with egg on their faces, publically admitting (without saying so in so many words) that they were in the wrong. They hate that.
but what they hate worse is losing in court. That makes them officially wrong.
They compounded a bad decision with a worse decision, and now have dropped it all, hoping it will just go away. I hope it works out for them...
People shouldn't get fired for a simple mistake. Particularly when the mistake is not one that gets someone physically harmed, or worse.
However, when a chain of officials make consistant and mutually supporting mistakes, there is a problem, and it does need to be fixed. Firing someone can be just a big a mistake as arresting that kid was. These things need to be reasoned out, not rushed into. Firing officials (at each or at any level) is an option we can always employ. It just shouldn't be the first choice, any more than arresting that kid should have been the officers first choice (or at least the one he chose).
Now, as to the teacher who began this mess, and the school who supported him, even after it was clearly a wrong choice, That's a slightly different matter. It too needs to be corrected.
"OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!" is emotionally satisfying, and it does prevent a recurrence by those individuals, but it doesn't correct the situation that caused the issue in the first place, generally. It might, if the trouble is the individuals. Trouble is, that after you say "off with their heads", you cannot later say "on with their heads!" It just doesn't work like that...
