Shorter O'Toole: "Cops lives matter. When faced with the slightest risk to themselves vs. harm to a putatively innocent non-cop, they'll always chose the latter."

a cop who panics and shoots a citizen in the face, is not fit to be a cop. Seems pretty simple to me. In a way, this is almost as bad as someone who does it out of malice or anger.

@1
Shorterer O'Toole: "So sue us, then."

"Delafuente grew emotional and apologized during a closed-door hearing with the disciplinary panel;"

I don't think I have ever heard before of a police officer admitting fault while they are a defendant in pending litigation that arose from their actions. Not around here, at least. If this is true, it sets her apart from her peers in a big way.

Has Delafuente apologized to Hagopian??? If not, why doesn't she if she's such a "stellar" cop???

"Questioned by Seattle Weekly's Casey Jaywork and I me"

tsk tsk

@5: Exactly. What does it matter if she got teary behind closed doors with her superiors who could fire her? And given all that has gone on with SPD, why should we believe she "grew emotional"?

If I try really, really hard to be as forgiving and understanding as possible, I could see a plausible argument for (2) as a reason to not fire her. To use it as a reason to exempt her from any real consequences whatsoever is inexcusable. She committed assault on a random member of the public because her job is difficult and stressful.

Spraying caustic chemicals at teachers and passers-by in random crowds at a peaceful gathering on Martin Luther King Jr. day while shrieking and throwing a tantrum: "STELLAR!!" Imagine if a non-cop did what she did? The beat down they'd get from cops? But it's totally cool because the peace officer "got emotional" about it later. That video is one of the most gallows-humor indictments of police out of control I've ever seen, and this news is an absolute insult.

So can I pepper spray O'Toole if my blood is pumping and I think it's better for society? And instead of being jumped by armed brainless goons (ie. cops), I'd get a verbal reprimand and everyone would defend me?

If that's the case, I'm totally down for that.

What I don't understand is that it's not as if the recommendation was a huge punishment. It was a ONE-day suspension. That's already a wrist slap. Doing less than that is appalling. It's the equivalent of one parent telling a child they are in time out for a half-hour and the other parent contradicting it by saying "no I've talked to the child so now punishment is over". It undermines the ability of the first parent to maintain control.

"Mistakes were made" is a phrase that should be punishable by excruciating death.