SCOTUS: Only police lives matter.

"The majority today exacerbates that troubling asymmetry. Its decision is not just wrong on the law; it also sends an alarming signal to law enforcement officers and the public. It tells officers that they can shoot first and think later, and it tells the public that palpably unreasonable conduct will go unpunished. Because there is nothing right or just under the law about this, I respectfully dissent."

















I 2nd that.

Debating the issue to death won't change the facts that the Arizona federal trial judge and the appellate court ruled in favor of the officer in the first place. So the Justices had quite a bit of arguments and evidence to consider when ruling 7 to 2 to shield the officer.

Considering the (?) brevity of the incident, no time to make lengthy decisions, call in the SWAT or a hostage negotiator, and apparently not a Taser situation, the LEOs did not have many options since it appeared at the time that the woman with the knife may have intended harm to her roommate and ignored lawful commands to drop the weapon.

Shot, though she was, she lived and sued.

The old adage of "don't bring a knife to a gunfight" obviously applies.

No doubt the SC will have further cases like this in the future in which circumstances may be a bit different, but different enough to switch from 7 to 2 is speculation.