That it is the biggest missed opportunity for police reform I've seen in my lifetime.
Why?
Because this case was in fact one of the biggest things that the left and right
could have united on and reached a mutually satisfactory compromise which
led to durable changes regarding the state of policing within the USA.
Instead, what did we see? Knee jerk outgroup hate from both the red and blue tribes despite it not even serving them to act in this manner. Unfortunately things have turned out how they usually do -- support for one's faction within the state regardless of whether this leads to better outcomes or not for those who the factions pretend to represent.
So, how then could there have been unity on this issue? In figuring this out, one must challenge the precedent set in the Castle Rock vs. Gonzales decision -- namely that the police have no obligation to the public at all under the constitution (instead only to the state who employs them).
From the left:
The police did nothing to try to de-escalate the situation, instead
standing down completely. The police look really shitty here, as it confirms
precisely what people on the left have hammered on the cops for a long time about -- namely that the police
only really have two modes of operation:
In this case it was the latter in response to the former, which should have been seen as adding insult to injury and the messaging should have flowed from that. With this position, the left wouldn't have even needed to have an opinion on the trial, as they win both ways rhetorically:
From the right:
The police were derelict in their duties towards protecting the property of
red blooded Americans, and people can't be surprised when WE THE PEOPLE have to
stand up for our constitutional god given rights, even if the consequences were
less than ideal. If you are gonna hate Kyle for doing what he did, then the
bigger crime is what led to these riots becoming out of control in the first
place. Why is the mayor and police not on trial for allowing such a thing to
happen instead of sacrificing someone who was *a minor* at the time to cover
for your own moral cowardice?
Note the two big themes here:
Because of these, the police were able to more or less pin their own crimes and problems on Saint Kyle, using him as a Judas Goat for the death of Saint Floyd.
IF instead we saw the police being obligated under the law to protect persons and property, then those responsible for killing the same protesters would have been the police, which would have in fact worked out better for the protesters *and* the police, as then the case would have been about the role of police in society, not a murder trial where people's feelings mostly swirl around whether you identify more with the Crips or the Bloods.
Perhaps then some actual compromises would have had to been reached as a part of the trial, leading to some actual changes (for better or worse).