I can understand the public opinion here to some degree. There have been some abuses historically and no one can dispute that. But there’s also the factor of the public not understanding common police policies and the legal concept of objective reasonableness. The media really does the public a disservice here because most of them are ignorant as can be and are just looking for clicks. There’s also been some large changes is police policies and hiring. The places where it’s changed the least, unsurprisingly, are the places with the strongest unions.
I think it’s the right charge given his actions after McDonald was down and his inability to describe any further threat McDonald posed. Van Dyke state’s he saw movement but that was it. Maybe if he would’ve stated that he felt that the officer coming to apply handcuffs was at risk from the man who was acting like he was high on PCP, then maybe manslaughter may have fit. But he didn’t state that and so murder 2 it is.
There must have been a lot of officers that differed with him, and weren't willing to back him.
