"No, cops don't get to make mistakes."
Really people? I knew the radical left was stacked with hypocrites; but, supposed libertarians would see a massive breach in Western legal tradition -- you don't lose your liberty because of a mistake -- because somebody chooses a certain job?
Most libertarians aren't anarchists. I am. I don't know why you're forcing me to be the voice of reason in the movement on this issue.
For the miniarchists libertarians, this shouldn't be hard. You still believe in a government that should just be much less powerful. So, you believe in some centralized law and there would be law enforcement...ya know...cops. you're singling out Kim Potter to say that cops don't get to make mistakes? Apparently politicians can still make cataclysmic mistakes to your mind and not face prison time. And, no, under the letter of Minnesota law, her actions didn't qualify as criminal negligence. The jury got it wrong and this wasn't a message that police are being held to the same standards as the rest of us.
For my fellow anarchists, of course I'm as angry about abuses of power by police as anybody. I've spent more of my adult life working on that issue than a lot of you. Still, once we finally do live in a world without centralized murdered, theft, and rape machines (aka governments), we're not going to be living in a world without bad people. We're not all going to want to have guns in our homes. We're not going to want to say at home with our guns all day and night. There are still going to be defense contractors. Are you going to say that a person who works for a defense or security contractor isn't allowed to make mistakes?
Yeah, it's a legal question now in terms of the distinction between negligence and criminal negligence; but, the reasons behind those laws are deeply moral. Intent matters. Taking away a person's liberty should be a last resort that's only exercised against bad people who do bad things and know that they're doing bad things. That can still include criminal negligence -- Henry Ruggs didn't intend to kill anybody; but, he knew what he was doing when he got drunk and drove his car 157mph in a 40 zone.
I'm taking the libertarian position here. People don't lose the right to make mistakes because of their choices of career or their political beliefs. You don't crank civil liability up to throwing a person in a cage due to those factors.
Stop letting radical leftists poison libertarian thought. That's the only explanation that I have for this pedestrian thinking.