Cuts & Conversations: Community Reacts to Amber Guyger Guilty Verdict
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Shock. Relief. Sadness.
A mixture of emotions swept through the Dallas community as the jury's verdict was announced.
At Kingz of Cutz barbershop in South Dallas, the cuts, for a time, took a backseat to conversations about the trial. Conversations which got highly-animated.
"With everything else going on with not trusting police officers, not feeling safe around them, those feelings would have intensified," says Gerard Claiborne. "When you can be in your own home and they can just come in and say that they're tired, and take your life?"
The fired Dallas officer's murder conviction is not controversial, here.
The disagreement comes when debating what should happen next.
"They need better psychological evaluations," insists Claiborne. "They need better training and there should be a step-ladder of achievement that they should get on, learning how to master non lethal means before they are given the right, and the privilege to walk around with your pistol and enforce laws."
"Everybody thinks training," insists Joseph Hawley in between his cut and a shave. "You can have all the training in the world, but until you're in that situation, you don't know what you're going to do."
Hawley says he trained daily in the military and still made mistakes, so he has compassion for Guyger, even while having no quarrels with the verdict. Consequences, he says, follow mistakes.
"I'm relieved because it was the right verdict, I believe," adds Claiborne. "And sad because of the people that are affected. Everybody's hurting. All of this is just bad."
