BEWARE OF POLICE EXCESSIVE FORCE NARRATIVES
©Wendell Griffen, 2023 A recent news article in The Guardian newspaper about the January 18, 2023, killing of 26 year-old Forest Defender Manuel Esteban Paez Teran (nicknamed “Tortuguita”) by Georgia State Troopers several weeks ago ( https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/14/cop-city-georgia-activist-autopsy-results-manuel-paez-teran ) touched one of my most painful memories as a retired judge. The article reports that Georgia police agencies have yet to release the official autopsy report of the slain environmental activist. However, an independent autopsy has concluded that the activist had been shot at least a dozen times. During my 24-year experience as a state court judge – 13 years on the Arkansas Court of Appeals and 11 years as an Arkansas circuit judge hearing civil and criminal cases – I read numerous police reports. The police reports that I found least reliable, and which I approached with the greatest caution and skepticism, involved encounters bet