Horrible either way, but I guess I see a difference in the two outcomes not just in degree but in kind. When I was 22 and in really good shape I hit a guy playing hockey really viciously. It was wrong, and I was being a dick. But I've been playing hockey my whole life and I've been in both ends of a really vicious hit. It hurts but only for a minute. But in this particular instance the dude, completely unbeknownst to me, had osteopenia. I broke 5 of his ribs and put him in the hospital for nearly a week with a collapsed lung. He literally could have died. And it would have been my fault. Sort of.

I guess I see something similar here. If this cop is a prick and does this sort of thing routinely, expecting to give the person a scare and nothing more, but then one day runs into an unexpected combination of morbidities, then that's bad but could justify a manslaughter charge or whatever he got. But if the dude is basically healthy and died due to acute asphyxiation, then that's straight up murder without hedging.

To me, if this result is true, and I imagine it is, because, you know, there's video evidence on top of this result from a couple really well known experts, then it looks like not just murder but conspiracy as well. I don't know how government officials are looked upon in these circumstances, but I know that an average citizen would be guilty of a felony if they actively tried to cover up a murder.

It's bad enough in any circumstances. I just feel like the lying (if that's what it was) makes it so much worse, because it totally obviates the "one bad actor" angle.

Edit: I guess I really feel like if this is true then no one in Minneapolis should be allowed to investigate or prosecute the case. Should be exclusively outside people who don't have an interest in protecting their own.