Well, Minneapolis police officer Duy Ngo finally has his compensation for being shot in the line of duty – $4.5 million paid by the City.
Duy was the undercover agent shot some 6 to 8 times several years ago by a fellow officer who opened-up with a sub-machine gun when Duy was kneeling in an alley asking for help.
So what did Minneapolis’ finest and its city leaders do then?
They lined up behind the shooter, the man with the drive to shoot and kill, and not with Duy. To me that was a stupid, sick, almost demented policy reflex. Stand by the “thumpers” on the police force; go for the tough guys who’ll carry the war to the enemy and glory in the violence.
Perverse if you ask me, a veteran of successful counter-insurgency operations in Southeast Asia.
I should disclose that right after the incident Duy’s friends and families sought my help and advice, which I freely gave. I got to know Duy and fully supported his position in seeking just compensation.
And the City, or rather the City’s taxpayers have paid for the unfeeling stupidity of not taking Duy’s side right from the beginning: nearly a million dollars in legal fees defending the principle of having an indefensible killer DNA in the Minneapolis police culture and then, having lost that very demeaning fight, paying millions more in compensation for Duy, much of which will go to his lawyer.
Duy’s request for honorable treatment could have been resolved immediately after the shooting without any litigation.
Not to mention the harm done with a demonstration of a lack of honor on the City’s part in not caring for a cop shot in the line of duty; not to mention the additional insult and pain imposed on Duy who had to deal with the facts created by a cruel and insensitive employer. He—not the thuggish cop who shot him—was the second-class police officer, his was the intruder under attack from the anti-bodies with the police culture protecting its self-image as a search-and-destroy mercenary force imposed on neighborhoods from without. This is the message Minneapolis wants all to take to heart about its police force?
Duy should have been feted, honored and made the toast of the town while his assailant should have been summarily removed from the force. In that way excellence would have prevailed over dysfunction.
In the years since the incident, no evidence has surfaced that challenged Duy’s initial version of events. There was no iota of credibility in the notion that his assailant had a defense for his trigger happy enthusiasm in repeated shooting an unarmed man kneeling in an alley.
The Duy Ngo incident reveals all we need to know about why the Minneapolis Police Force is such a continuous failure in bringing security to so many neighborhoods under siege from some genuinely bad actors.
Being armed with advanced weaponry and stalking around on the edge of wrath with a quick trigger finger is not the best way to eliminate crime. Minneapolis should listen up and learn better ways of policing.
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