Sluggish,
I don't think people were arguing that the Officer "just ran a stop sign" so therefor should go away with no penalty. What I saw was a lot of very strident bleating that the Officer should be punished automatically before any investigation is completed. There were also minor rants about murder, which were blatantly posted indicating that this was a premeditated act, something that is required to have a charge of murder. That is also not required in the case of vehicular manslaughter. The rants were pretty one sided indicating that the decision was made, irregardless of the lack of knowledge of the scene, evidence and circumstances, to just pronounce sentence. Why have in investigation or trial when we can serve "justice" based on an article almost completely devoid of any information by the folks who post on a bbs?
As was stated before, no charges will be brought until the investigation is completed and no citations are issued for vehicular manslaughter anyhow.
Again I want to point out that the situation in this thread is far different.
An investigation was held. A trial was conducted after the investigation where a "jury of his peers" saw, heard and deliberated on the evidence, not a 3rd hand news article bereft of any of that, and pronunced a judgment. Not a bit of that had been done much less written about in the post you were alluding to yet the calls for the death or imprisonment of the Officer were present. Due process be damned and all that stuff.
Once the system has done the tasks that we expect to be done in any case like that, then let the sentence be levied and served by the guilty party. That is the same here in the case of the elderly man as it should be in the case with the Police Officer. Both are entitled to due process. One has received that benefit, the other has yet to have it completed.
