Consistency in Accountability

The AP through Yahoo News brings the story of a 5 year old boy killed by a stray bullet from a police officer. The police officer was helping a nearby resident get rid of a snake in a tree, and apparently decided to kill it by shooting it. Nearby, a boy and his grandfather were fishing on a lake when the second of two shots struck the boy in the head. Recognizing this was a careless accident, the boy's grandfather makes this observation:

"I'm not saying the cop shot him on purpose," he said. "But let me tell you — if I had a kid and put him in this car and didn't put him in a car seat and he got killed on the way to town, they'd charge me with murder ... and what this cop did is a lot worse than that."

Let that sink in for a bit.