From the
Star's story, Ford and Tory owe this poor guy an apology at the very least:
Looking at the key facts here.
Zameer (the accused, now found not guilty) had no criminal record and was not known to police at all.
He was approaching his vehicle, in a mostly deserted parking garage sometime close to midnight.
Inside the vehicle, his pregnant wife and very young child
Then, 2 strangers, not in police uniform, appear out of nowhere and move towards him and his car at speed.
He suspects danger and moves to get in the car and lock the doors.
The strangers begin banging on his car, loudly, and cause his young child to cry
He panics and tries to drive off
An unmarked police van cuts him off, he take a series of evasive actions during which the plainclothes officer was hit and killed.
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The only facts in dispute was whether the police identified themselves; and whether or not Zameer intentionally ran over the officer, or did so unintentionally in the course of trying to escape what he thought was a robbery or worse.
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Looking at the above, this really falls on very poor police conduct.
That the officer who was killed may well have been a very nice guy who meant no harm but to do his job here, is tragic, but self-inflicted.
I think any reasonable person would perceive the actions of these plain clothes individuals are comparable to carjackers, and respond in a similar way.
That the police seem obtuse about that is deeply disturbing.
That by all accounts police then chose to lie about how things unfolded, under oath, in court, providing testimony that is in conflict with evidence from security cameras and experts on accident reconstruction is beyond disturbing.
Sadly, one imagines the deceitful officers will not be punished/removed from their force, as their chief has come out already saying he hoped for a different verdict (which is to say, he hoped for the conviction of an innocent man, based on the lying testimony of his officers).
The chief should, but I don't imagine will resign.
