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Mike’s Caller Reacts To Fatal Beating Of Tyre Nichols And Talk Of Police Reform
Mike has a great exchange with a caller who shares what he thinks could change to improve policing in America.
GALLAGHER: Bill in the upstate of South Carolina.
CALLER BILL: Thanks for taking my call. Love your show. So I’ve got 3 points. I don’t want to call it police reform because like you said there is nothing we can do to help that. You cant take evil out of people. No matter what color you are, but I do have 3 points that might help it. My first thing is qualified immunity. That needs to be lowered to a much lower standard so these police officers dont have the mindset of I can do this and maybe get away with it.
GALLAGHER: Lets talk about that. Qualified immunity gets into what is the liability of a police officer. How do you see qualified immunity playing into this because they didn’t get away with it? They are facing 2nd degree murder charges.
CALLER BILL: Correct. They didn’t get away with it, but in their minds they were thinking they would. They think in their mind, I have qualified immunity and he don’t. A little background about me, I spent 8 years in the military and I got an associate degree in criminal justice. I was going to become a cop, but I walked away from that once I got in the doors and saw how it was done.
GALLAGHER: What drove you away? I am interested in your story. What changed your mind?
CALLER BILL: When I was in college, I went for a few ride alongs. Not every cop is bad, but the mindset of letting I get away with this just because I am a cop. The one guy who really did it for me he said this is a battlefield. That is wrong. Being in America around your own citizens is not a battlefield. I understand you got a rough job. A lot of people have rough jobs.
GALLAGHER: But not everyone has a rough job where your life is literally on the line every single day of your life. I have to tell you with all due respect, I have spent hundreds of hours doing ride alongs as well. You have a very different experience than I did and I am sorry you met officers who thought they can get away with things. That was not my experience.
