The Thin Blue Line Between "Necessary Force" and Getting Away With Murder

5/1/2011 • Free Patriot Press

Rueters is reporting city officials in Seattle, Washington “agreed to pay $1.5 million to the family of a Native American woodcarver (John Williams) fatally shot by a white cop (Ian Burk) in a confrontation that stoked racial tensions and helped spark a federal probe of Seattle's police force... The settlement document states that $1.25 million will be paid to Williams' estate and $250,000 paid to his mother.” Rueters further reports, “A police firearms review board deemed the August 2010 shooting of John Williams, 50, unjustified, ruling that although he was intoxicated at the time he posed no threat 'of serious harm' to the officer.” However prosecutors chose not to bring criminal charges against Ian Burk due to “insufficient evidence of criminal intent or malice.“ Sadly, this is not the only case – or even one of handful of cases – of someone literally getting away with murder because they wear a uniform with a badge. David Klinger, author of “Into the Kill Zone: A Cop’s Eye V