Taking positive steps after Potter sentencing

Assuming good behavior, Kimberly Potter could be out of prison in 13 months. And does anyone expect anything but good behavior from the former Brooklyn Center police officer?

Nothing about Potter's demeanor suggests that she is a hardened criminal or poses a likely risk to reoffend. Her expressions of remorse and her long record of public service suggest that she is a person of good character.

But that impression is a subjective one. To communities of color, who have learned through hard experience not to expect equal treatment, subjectivity may not seem like an ally.

Potter was found guilty in December of manslaughter in the death of Daunte Wright. In an error of muscle memory that will live in infamy, she pulled her firearm instead of her Taser to stop the young Black man from driving away during a traffic stop. She called out, "Taser! Taser! Taser!" and shot him in the chest.

Potter's first-degree manslaughter conviction might have drawn a sentence of seven years or more. Hennepin County District Judge Regina Chu last week acknowledged that she was going to disappoint a number of people in imposing a sentence of just 24 months. She took pains to explain the careful reasoning she followed in reaching "an extremely difficult decision."

A prison term, Chu said, is meant to serve four purposes: retribution, incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation. In Potter's case, she thought only one of those purposes applied. There was no need, Chu said, to prevent Potter from re-entering society; nor was there any need to discourage her from making the same mistake again. And "Ms. Potter does not require rehabilitation to become a law-abiding citizen," Chu asserted.

That left retribution. "There rightfully should be some accountability," Chu said. Hence, a 24-month sentence, minus a third for good behavior and with credit for time served.

Critics immediately contrasted the case of Potter to that of Mohamed Noor, the ex-Minneapolis cop who killed Justine Ruszczyk Damond in 2017. Like Potter, Noor — who shot Damond in an apparent startled reaction when she approached the squad car he was riding in — was convicted of manslaughter, though in the second degree. He is serving a longer sentence on that lesser charge.

The contrast between the sentences — and the fact that Noor was a Black cop who killed a white woman, while Potter was a white cop who killed a Black man — prompts a reasonable suspicion that the justice system unfairly favors white people. In her 16-minute statement Judge Chu addressed the Noor case directly, but without mentioning race.

"This is not a cop found guilty of manslaughter for intentionally drawing his firearm and shooting across his partner and killing an unarmed woman who approached his squad," she said. "This is a cop who made a tragic mistake. She drew her firearm thinking it was a Taser and ended up killing a young man." She emphasized Potter's 26-year record of honorable service to the citizens of Brooklyn Center.

Attorney General Keith Ellison, who had taken charge of the prosecution's case, appealed to Minnesotans to accept the sentence and "try to understand." He held out hope that Potter might "make a powerful contribution" to an effort to end the known hazard of weapons confusion, which has led police officers to draw the wrong weapon at least 15 times in the past 20 years.

"If out of the tragic death of Daunte Wright we can prevent any more deaths from weapons confusion, that would be a powerful legacy," Ellison said.