Amber Guyger did not shoot Botham Jean because he was black! No, today’s story will not be about race, but about how the police are handling the situation and not being held to a higher standard when it comes to crimes they commit.
To show I have no overwhelming bias I would like to say I am an African American. I would also like to point out that no one really knows what happened in that aparment except for Guyger and Jean. Mr. Jean, who is unfortunately deceased, is of course not going to be able to tell his side of the story.
Now, we are taught in school from an early age to respect and look up to the police for being upstanding, but this can be loose in terms of how a culture could see the police. Obviously, as an African American, the history behind us and the police is well documented and a lot of it is not pretty.
With this reasoning, there is certainly a reason to understand why this shooting could be a racial issue. However, nothing has been revealed yet that proves this to be true. Perhaps it could be a racial issue, but as of now, everything is speculation. Wanting it to be true only leads to confirmation bias that a white cop killed another African American.
Many people want something to be done to police who abuse their power or are undertrained; however, the sad truth about this story, and something that many should be able to agree upon, is that this situation should have ended much differently than it did. This is where morality comes in and why it seems like the police are not being held to a higher standard.
The fact is that this woman shot an unarmed man in his own apartment. Yes, Guyger claims she thought it was hers and he could have been a robbing her, but as a police officer, one would think that she should have known her surroundings and realized her mistake.
Next is the shooting; many can argue that the shooting should have been Guyger’s last resort. If Guyger was properly trained for a situation of similar nature, then this situation wouldn’t have taken place. But what really leads me to believe that some police officers are not being held to a higher standard, is how this situation is being handled.
As many people online have argued, the average person would have already remained in jail. Yet, this woman was able to post bail and have a few days of freedom. There are some rumblings that this woman will only get off on manslaughter charges rather than murder. This again shows a lack of high standards failing to be implemented since the average person would probably have been charged with murder.
Finally, it seems like the police are trying to protect one of their own since her photo was not even posted to news sites until a few days after the shooting, while a normal person would have been in the news immediately. She was also placed on paid leave until further notice, even though we know she shot a man in his own apartment. Again, would the average person be this lucky? Probably not. There are obviously a lot of details missing from this story, and for most of them, things do not add up.
However, let’s be clear until further information comes out not to assume things. Rather, let’s start asking questions like why the police are not being held to a higher standard.
