First, we need to go where Dallas Observer columnist Jim Schutze refused to go in his Amber Guyger white-knight trial bromance about how she couldn't get a fair trial in Dallas and many, many other things.
As The Root and others have reported, and as her brother-in-law's OK sign and her mom's "All Lives Matter" T-shirt show, Guyger at a minimum left herself open to charges of racism. And, AFAIK, Schutze never discussed that. ADL has dismissed the OK sign as not being that version of OK. However, there are other Hispanics, Mr. Garza, who dislike blacks. There are American Indians who dislike blacks. Look at ... George Zimmerman. Being Hispanic is no defense against racism.
That said, a new story at Schutze's own employer shows that texts (not to her patrol partner lover, but others), along with post-hiring social media posts, show that yes, Amber Guyger appears to have several racist bones in her body. But Schutze, now that he can't carry on his bromance about Guyger getting a fair trial, asks "why is it always about race?" Dude? Are you like New York Times or Wall Street Journal columnists who never read the news stories in their own papers either?
Add in a sprinkling of posturing by Schutze, two or three sprinkles of holystoning and holier-than-thou-ing from Jim, and the column is complete.
Grits for Breakfast has some good in-depth thoughts, starting with the racism issue. Actually, that's No. 2, after abuse of authority by Dallas police union prez Mike Mata, whom many people rightfully want to resign.
No. 3, after the social media racism? De-escalation training for cops only works if they want to use it. And, going beyond Grits, on the issue, is there no stick of citations for cops who don't use it? Probably not.
No. 4 for Grits is why Guyger and patrol partner Martin Rivera weren't cited for evidence tampering for deleting texts. (More on this below.) That would be her Hispanic patrol partner with whom she was carrying on an affair, to the point of texting the night she shot, well, no, murdered, Botham Jean. But Guyger's b-i-l being Hispanic, as well as herself having a Hispanic lover? Nope, that's no proof against racism. See above.
Her attorneys said that prosecutors were trying to make her look bad. No, they were trying to show her making herself look bad by looking callous.
Per NPR's story about her sentencing, other social media posts made her look trigger-happy, which was part of the prosecution's case.
Her defense team added to the problem if it coached her to say that she wished she were dead and he were still alive. To me, it came off as over the top. WAY over the top.
Speaking of the sentencing?
Contra Grits, Judge Tammy Kemp hugging Amber Guyger was NOT the worst thing she did, in my opinion. Instead, right before that moment, it was this:
After that emotional denouement (of Brandt Jean hugging Guyger), Judge Kemp descended from the bench and walked over to Guyger thumbing through a book.
Kemp read from her own Christian bible and reportedly counseled Guyger as to how she thought the gospel might work wonders for the soon-to-be numbered – in a state penitentiary – murderess.
“I have three or four more bibles at home,” Kemp says. “This is your job for the next month.”
The judge told Guyger to study John chapter 3 verse 16 – and then proceeded to read it aloud.
Why does Judge Kemp hate the First Amendment? This is a clear church-state separation violation, as I see it. And, I don't get non-Gnu Atheists, including a person I follow on Disqus, who clearly not only refuses to see this, but is actually excuse making for Kemp.
Hell no. Whether she was racist or not, though she said she shot deliberately, the classic, to the public, idea of premeditation seems absent.
On the other hand, prosecutors' closing argument made a powerful statement about Guyger's alleged state of mind. (The judge disallowed defense expert witnesses testifying more specifically about that; that will surely be a core part of the appeal claim.)
Some sort of plea deal should have been reached before the trial, on manslaughter, but with a sentence of at least 10 years, and maybe as high as 20 because of her apparent callousness. Plea negotiations are almost never revealed in public later, so I don't know what was offered by prosecution.
As for what time she WILL get? Balch Springs cop Roy Oliver, with a previous disciplinary record, got 15 years for murdering Jordan Edwards.
Update: Guyger has been sentenced to 10 years. That sounds about "right."
On the third hand, as regular readers may have been expecting? Per Walter Kaufman, there's really no such thing as guilt or justice and certainly, contra John Rawls, no such thing as fairness.
Beyond the stereotypical tropes that "justice won't bring back Botham Jean" or similar, murder instead of manslaughter is no more likely to rehabilitate Amber Guyger in prison, assuming she indeed needs some sort or rehabilitation. Even should Jean's family sue the apartment complex for its alleged security lapses, murder instead of manslaughter won't give them much more lawsuit leverage. As for Jean's family mentioning Michael Brown and Eric Garner, among others? Guyger's conviction won't bring them back to life, nor, since murder is a state-level crime, will it likely affect criminal justice of police officers in other states. Schutze does get that right, after you wade through his pontificating. But, nobody was listening to you that night.
Sidebar: Per Grist' plaint, Stephen Young says Dallas police chief U. Renee Hall says her department is investigating the tampering issue, as well as Mata's actions in sequestering Guyger in a police cruiser with recording items turned off. But, given all that, this sounds like fox-and-henhouse stuff. The Rangers normally investigate law enforcement agencies on potential criminality. Hell, why isn't Dallas County DA John Creuzot launching his investigators with the focus of possible grand jury action? Per Hall's claim that the DPD isn't all about this? Really? You let a person who never should have been a big-city cop become one of your cops. And per her information, you've got some sort of pool of anti-black racism among non-black officers.
Sidebar 2: Guyger's family also, looking at that photo, at least the left-hand half of it, left themselves open to charges of inbreeding or something.
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