"When your missteps are under a microscope, your mistakes are massively magnified!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
The LMPD has no case.
It knows this but is trying to save face by talking Scotty Scheffler down to a misdemeanor. His lawyer knows they have no case, but the police force doesn't seem to recognize that it's not 1995 anymore and that things have changed, because, well, video.
If you haven't seen the two videos about the events involving the #1 golfer in the world, you soon will. It's all over social media and the video - as well as the detailed history of reckless action by the the arresting officer - are being dissected and analyzed as if they were a modern-day Zapruder film.
Because they are.
Back in 2003, I gave an opening keynote to the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police. The audience of 500, all in uniform, was demographically predictable. Among many trends that I covered, one was the looming era of the proliferation of video recording devices. I suggested that they might want to be intimately familiar and involved with the implications of the trend. After all, I said, all their future public interactions might be caught on film. This fact might work for them, but it would also work against them - and they should be cognizant of this reality in light of the valuable work their institutions perform.
The folks in the room didn't take kindly or seem to like that part of the trend's message; some of the feedback was visceral. Twenty years later, it's clear that some police forces got the message that the future has arrived; many others have not. The LMPD seems to be one of those.
When you view the videos, you'll understand why the court of public opinion is incredulous that in the face of this video, they might still be prepared to proceed. Keep in mind that Scheffler is charged with 2nd-degree assault of a police officer, Criminal Mischief 3rd-degree, reckless driving, and disregarding signals from an officer directing traffic. Watch the video, and make your judgment.
When the future changes, you must change too.
The same type of situation seems to be unfolding with a few judges on the US Supreme Court. For an institution in which its members are supposed to be independent and impartial, and excusing themselves from any case in which that impartiality might come into question, they are doing a pretty piss poor job in the flag department. The same type of thing results in the court of public opinion - people lose faith in their role to the ultimate detriment of society.
People wonder why, in this modern age, people distrust institutions. The reasons should be clear - when the institutions are incapable of operating within the societal norms expected of them, with clear and demonstrable evidence available about that behavior, egregious behaviors become inexcusable.
It's not the 20th century anymore - the eyes of the world are always on everyone.
Some folks don't yet understand that.
Futurist Jim Carroll has long understood that denial of obvious change is a powerful force to be reckoned with.