Daunte Wright's Parents React to Sentencing of Kim Potter
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 2 years ago • 16 commentsBy: Alex Griffing (Mediaite)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Alex GriffingFeb 18th, 2022, 12:58 pm Twitter share button <?php // Post Body ?>
The parents of Daunte Wright gave very emotional statements on Friday, immediately following the sentencing of former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter who fatally shot their son during a 2021 traffic stop.
Potter, who was convicted of both first-degree and second-degree manslaughter, was sentenced to two years in prison and a $1,000 fine.
Due to the fact that Potter has already served 58 days, she will serve 16 months in prison and the remainder of her sentence on supervised release.
Wright's mother blasted Hennepin County District Court Judge Regina Chu, during her statement Friday as she had called on the judge to impose the maximum sentence of 15 years behind bars and/or a $30,000 fine.
Katie Wright, Daunte's mother, slammed the judge for not reacting to her victim impact statement on Friday. Wright said, "to not get a response out of the judge at all, but then when it came down convicting — or to sentencing Kim Potter, she broke out in tears."
"So once again, we are standing here to say that we're very disappointed in the outcome. Yes, we got a conviction and we thank everybody for that. But again, this isn't okay," Wright continued.
"This is the problem with our justice system today. White women tears trumps, trumps justice. And I thought my white woman tears would be good enough because they're true and genuine. But when they're coerced, coached, and taught by the defense attorney, I guess we didn't have a win in this at all. Thank you," she concluded.
Daunte's father, Arbuey Wright, spoke next:
I want to just say, you know, I feel cheated. I feel hurt. I'm very upset that my son's life was taken. And that it seemed to me that nobody even cared enough, you know, it was like they were so tied up to her feelings and what's going on with her that they forgot about my son being killed. A life was taken. And it's just sad today that I feel like we was tricked. You know, we was limited on everything on what they would say, I feel like and it's just sad that our justice system — you know, we actually thought we was gonna get a little justice. You know, nothing could ease our mind from Daunte being killed, but just the fact of knowing that this lady was going to pay for that, it gave us a little see of hope like, you know, things were going to get a little better.
"But now, I walk out of this courthouse feeling like people are laughing at us because this lady got a slap on the wrist and we still every night sitting around crying, waiting on my son to come home," he continued, breaking down into tears.
"I'm upset," he added tearfully, before walking away from the microphones.
Watch the full clip above via CNN
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I think 5 or 6 years, no parole , would have been more appropriate.
Considering this was an unintentional and tragic accident, the verdict is fair
What would be an appropriate sentence then in your opinion?
Minimum 10 years, no chance of parole, no only needing to do 75% ~ 85% complete. The old "let the punishment fit the crime" comes to mind.
A training LEO pulls their gun versus their taser; pulls the incorrect weapon, weapons they have put on EVERY DAY, for years and are different colors.
Forget the race, gender, age differences and arguments, this type of outcome once again is a double-edge sword. Okay, a cop gets convicted and there is a sentence, but it's a wrist slap.
I'm afraid this is going to become the new favorite among LEOs. I feared for my life has pretty much run it's course, though you still hear it from time to time.
She got 16 months because he was, after all, attempting to flee over an air fresher stop.
Yeah, but he had warrants.
"But now, I walk out of this courthouse feeling like people are laughing at us because this lady got a slap on the wrist and we still every night sitting around crying, waiting on my son to come home," he continued, breaking down into tears.
While I understand the family being upset that she did not get the full sentence I don't understand why he would feel people are laughing at him over the sentence. No one one with a heart would be laughing at someone that lost their child. I am sure she does not consider 2 years in jail a slap on the wrist. I don't know all that goes into sentencing where they were but I will assume they were within the standards for the crime and the area. Remorse may or may not be taken into account, I am not sure of the law there.
I am not buying into the white woman tears trump justice argument, that sounds like something Joy Reid would promote.
You get less time when it's a first offense and you have a clean record. Daunte Wright was on bail for armed robbery of two women during which he choked and threatened to shoot one of the women if she didn't give him her $820.00 in rent money. Wright also had a warrant for his arrest out at the time of his fatal shooting after failing to appear in court for the fleeing and weapons charges, he was out on 100,000 bail for the robbery but it had been revoked because of the the fleeing and weapons charges. He was going to prison they just hadn't caught up with him till that day and he tried again to escape during this arrest when he was shot. Another innocent black man shot by cops my ass !
As unpopular as I’m sure this will be to say among my peers, speaking as a liberal I think the judge made the right call. Let’s not conflate this tragedy with the other high profile cases of black victims of police violence. The job of a police officer is hard, and when one has an undeniable history of exemplary service but makes one horrible mistake, their service should be reflected in the sentence. This kid was breaking laws while having a warrant and then tried to flee in a manner that could have gotten people hurt or killed. He didn’t deserve to die, but he put himself and others in a terribly dangerous position and due to the chaos and confusion he initiated, he became the victim of an accident of his own making.
As one of your peers, I agree with the sentencing. The news this morning said she could get up to 12. Two years is a long time in the slammer for a cop. And this is a white cop who shot and killed a black man. I could feel her remorse as she spoke about how sorry she was and she never intended to kill him. I think her life could be over. She will never be a cop again
Agreed, Judge Chu made the right call considering all aspects of the case.
The whole situation was caused by Daunte Wright's attempt to escape. Normally if someone commits a crime and a death results from them committing that crime then they are charged with murder, so Daunte Wright is to blame for his own death. As far as the cop she had cause to shoot him but her admitting to the mistake of using the gun instead of her intended use of the taser would be grounds to fire her but still not a crime. If she had never admitted her mistake the shooting would have been deemed justified and she'd still be a cop today. The cause of this shooting was Daunte Wright's escape attempt and he deserves the blame. Screw his whining parents they should have raised him better, they failed to teach him right from wrong and now he's dead.
If she had never admitted her mistake the shooting would have been deemed justified and she'd still be a cop today.
Well she did yell “taser! taser! taser!” before accidentally shooting him with a gun instead. That might be hard to explain. As far as parenting goes, they didn’t do themselves any favors by putting the son with the face tattoos on camera. That dude looks like he’ll end up in prison sooner or later. If my son looked like that I would think twice about even letting him in the house. Definitely some questionable parenting going on there.
He had quite the criminal record, my parents would have disowned me if I had a record like his.