Gonk 9000

You really think that the full officer’s name won’t leak somehow?

I am almost certain the officer’s name will leak if it already hasn’t. There are plenty of people with political interest one way or the other to make it public. Or simply someone greedy enough for a scoop to build their journalistic reputation.

As for “look the other way”, once the police work and field decisions gets politicized enough, this can happen. And case Nahel is politicized to the max due to the scale of follow-up rioting. For example, I recommend to check what happened in Baltimore post-2015. The part from David Simon, a Baltimore police reporter, is interesting here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/02/baltimore-murder-rate-homicides-ceasefire

Yes, I agree, there is certainly the “screw you”-angle in the crowdfunder! Just look at who created it.

Regardless, there is another angle, perhaps unintentionally, and I think it is more important in the big picture:

The officer will likely never work as a policeman again, regardless if he goes to jail or not.

He likely ends up unemployed, and will probably have a hard time finding work for the rest of his life because of the reputation he has obtained.

If the consequences for a police officer following their training – crime happens, suspect does not comply to verbal commands, suspect needs to be stopped per training, in this case firearms were allowed – is that the officer’s life will be destroyed and also their family will suffer tremendously and ends up losing whole or half their income, what do you think happens next time when police has to uphold the law?

The police will choose to look the other way and let whatever is happening take place. This is very bad for society as a whole in the long term.

Like the article says, the crowdfunder is for the family of the officer (as the officer is likely going to jail). French authorities would have immediately stopped a crowdfunder going directly to the officer, as that would be illegal per French law.

This is s tragedy all-in-all but what I would like to know: Nahel M. was 17, therefore driving illegally (no license), why was he doing this? Why didn’t he stop at the checkpoint? Why try to drive away? Was it a stolen car (it had Polish plates)?

Sadly, had Nahel M. stopped and done what the police say, I believe Nahel M. would still be alive. They would have certainly arrested and charged him (reckless driving, no license, possibly stolen car, and so on). Perhaps Nahel M. was afraid of being arrested like this, possibly a justified fear based on his experiences in the banlieue.

However, his attempt to drive away suggests he was aware of his actions being illegal and he wanted to avoid the consequences. Why would one do something illegal in the first place, if one wants to avoid consequences with the police?