Scheffler Charges Dropped with Prejudice (no chance to be refiled)

[ctg44]

https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/40240096/charges-dropped-scottie-scheffler-louisville-arrest
 
I expected this from the start, having done a lot of traffic control in bad weather myself.  It was just a dumb decision to make this arrest under these circumstances and was a black eye that Louisville PD didn't need after the past few years of bad publicity.

[BallsLeon]

Glad to see this distraction is behind Scottie now. Bummer to think this might have spoiled his chances at a Grand Slam.

[Vertical]

Arrested for making a right turn without permission? Bryan Gillis is yet another cop on a power trip. But criminalizing traffic behaviour as a felony?! Give me a break. Scheffler is no criminal. Send Gillis into a high crime neighborhood to stop violent criminals…not traffic offenders. 

[MissionMan]

As a person who lives outside the USA, the way some of the police react to situations is hard for us to understand because we don't deal with it regularly. There seems to be a shoot first, ask questions later policy. In Australia, as an example, you can't just shoot a suspect running away. They would need to pose a danger to the officer or other people. If you shot a suspect running, there would be an enquiry.

In the situation, as we saw with Scotty, cops wouldn't hang onto the car. They would take his registration number down, and he would be tracked down and fined later. There wasn't any reason to go for a big arrest for something like that. The officer put himself at risk for no reason. If they caught scotty later, a traffic fine for failing to stop when directed would have covered it without all the drama. Loses points on his license, fine to pay (if guilty).

 

[ctg44]

9 hours ago, MissionMan said:

As a person who lives outside the USA, the way some of the police react to situations is hard for us to understand because we don't deal with it regularly. There seems to be a shoot first, ask questions later policy. In Australia, as an example, you can't just shoot a suspect running away. They would need to pose a danger to the officer or other people. If you shot a suspect running, there would be an enquiry.

In the situation, as we saw with Scotty, cops wouldn't hang onto the car. They would take his registration number down, and he would be tracked down and fined later. There wasn't any reason to go for a big arrest for something like that. The officer put himself at risk for no reason. If they caught scotty later, a traffic fine for failing to stop when directed would have covered it without all the drama. Loses points on his license, fine to pay (if guilty).

 

Trust me, at both departments I worked at as an officer myself, plus the one I work with most closely here in my current role, shooting at a fleeing felon or jumping on a car in an unnecessary escalation of a situation and then wanting to compound that by making a felony arrest would have resulted in a lot of problems.  

[mpatrickriley]

10 hours ago, MissionMan said:

In the situation, as we saw with Scotty, cops wouldn't hang onto the car. They would take his registration number down, and he would be tracked down and fined later. There wasn't any reason to go for a big arrest for something like that. The officer put himself at risk for no reason. If they caught scotty later, a traffic fine for failing to stop when directed would have covered it without all the drama. Loses points on his license, fine to pay (if guilty).

I'm most certainly on the side of Scottie here, that the charges were grossly inflated given what appears to have happened. And yet, if we might put in any word in defense of Officer Gillis: a man had just been killed by a tour bus in front of the course. Traffic was being redirected because it was the scene of an investigation of a death. This wasn't a garden-variety situation of directing cars at an event.

Again, I don't think the charges were remotely justified, and as best I can tell, the officer's reaction (and the conversation with the other officer in the patrol car) were both gross abuses of power. But keeping a car, whoever is driving, from entering an investigation scene of a death—that's not an utterly trivial matter.

[Zgrabby11]

Totally agree. Bad timing to make an arrest during a tragic event. Communication between the cops should’ve been better in my opinion with the way it sounds. Prayers and RIP to the family of the tragic morning!

[Stuka44]

I immediately got into an argument with someone at work.  I could have written this outcome 5 minutes after it occurred.  Before anyone questions my perspective, I retired after 30 years serving as a Road Patrol Sergeant for an agency who served a population of 52,000 people, and I was our, firearms,  use of force , and deadly force instructor.

Unfortunately things like this are going to occur more and more, as the number of applicants for police jobs go from 350 for one opening when I took a test in(1989), to 12 applicants for 4 openings(2018). 

Don't know his name but this is what I would tell him if I was his supervisor. 

      "If your ego, and personality, results in you coming unhinged, because someone gets confused, on a dark, rainy, early morning, where flashing lights really only add to the confusion, and your first response is to try and grab the car, and then you try to compound this by blaming the operator of the vehicle, and then when he stops, you are so unglued you can't control your emotions/fear(even if its a fatal crash), you snatch the person out of their vehicle over something like this.....  Then I am not apologetic in the least when I indicate  You have very likely chosen(to take a crack at) the wrong profession, please resign ASAP, before you can do anymore harm to the profession, which is having a hard enough time lately.  There is no shame, its just a fact that not everyone is cut out for, or has the mental make up, to be successful as a policeman."

  

Edited May 31 by Stuka44

[fixyurdivot]

Glad to hear that news.

[MissionMan]

6 hours ago, GolfSpy MPR said:

I'm most certainly on the side of Scottie here, that the charges were grossly inflated given what appears to have happened. And yet, if we might put in any word in defense of Officer Gillis: a man had just been killed by a tour bus in front of the course. Traffic was being redirected because it was the scene of an investigation of a death. This wasn't a garden-variety situation of directing cars at an event.

Again, I don't think the charges were remotely justified, and as best I can tell, the officer's reaction (and the conversation with the other officer in the patrol car) were both gross abuses of power. But keeping a car, whoever is driving, from entering an investigation scene of a death—that's not an utterly trivial matter.

100% not questioning whether Scottie was at fault. Just indicating that even IF he was at fault, it wouldn't have been handled like this. From the other responses, it seems like it's only a small portion of the police who act this way.

[Mike10487]

16 hours ago, Stuka44 said:

I immediately got into an argument with someone at work.  I could have written this outcome 5 minutes after it occurred.  Before anyone questions my perspective, I retired after 30 years serving as a Road Patrol Sergeant for an agency who served a population of 52,000 people, and I was our, firearms,  use of force , and deadly force instructor.

Unfortunately things like this are going to occur more and more, as the number of applicants for police jobs go from 350 for one opening when I took a test in(1989), to 12 applicants for 4 openings(2018). 

Don't know his name but this is what I would tell him if I was his supervisor. 

      "If your ego, and personality, results in you coming unhinged, because someone gets confused, on a dark, rainy, early morning, where flashing lights really only add to the confusion, and your first response is to try and grab the car, and then you try to compound this by blaming the operator of the vehicle, and then when he stops, you are so unglued you can't control your emotions/fear(even if its a fatal crash), you snatch the person out of their vehicle over something like this.....  Then I am not apologetic in the least when I indicate  You have very likely chosen(to take a crack at) the wrong profession, please resign ASAP, before you can do anymore harm to the profession, which is having a hard enough time lately.  There is no shame, its just a fact that not everyone is cut out for, or has the mental make up, to be successful as a policeman."

  

NAILED IT!