
To serve and protect? Isn’t that the credo most police officers swear to abide by? Perhaps Duluth police officer Richard Jouppi didn’t get the memo. Or perhaps he failed the ethics portion of police academy training.
Granted, we don’t know everything that happened prior to the man’s arrest, he did threaten to throw his jacket at the woman in the office, and he put his hand on Officer Jouppi’s face; however, it’s still tough to imagine that Officer Jouppi’s actions were justified here. The man clearly wasn’t much of a threat to anyone in the office and could have easily been subdued in a much, much less physical manner.
Fortunately, police officers aren’t above the law. We fully expect Officer Jouppi to face criminal charges for his actions.