The Salt Lake Police Department is defending itself in the case of the man accused of a string of hit-and-runs in the city and questions about why Pham wasn't arrested after the initial hit-and-run last August.

The Salt Lake Police Department is defending itself in the case of the man accused of a string of hit-and-runs in the city and questions about why Ahn Pham wasn’t arrested after the initial hit-and-run last August.

A department spokesman told KSL TV that the case was investigated as an aggravated assault. But, it was determined that there wasn’t enough probable cause to arrest Pham, despite having a license plate number, a victim, and two witness accounts of what happened.

  • JoBo@feddit.uk
    103·
    8 months ago

    First off, the police didn’t even arrest him. This is nothing to do with a ‘failure’ to lock him up, it’s a failure to bring any charges at all.

    But, more importantly, hit and run is a very serious crime. Whether or not you were at fault for hitting someone, leaving the scene instead of getting them help is the most serious element of the crime (in the absence of evidence of intent).

    • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
      416·
      8 months ago

      Hitting an individual is a small subset of hit and runs. Most just involve property damage to a vehicle or structure

        • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
          411·
          8 months ago

          Sure? I’m not defending the dude in the article, who I now know was attacking people. I admit I skipped a few paragraphs and misunderstood this case. But I’m still steadfast in my belief that property crimes don’t deserve prison sentences. A hit and run in and of itself does not warrant being locked up.

      • JoBo@feddit.uk
        42·
        8 months ago

        I don’t think that is true. But even if it was, this particular hit and run hit a person. As you know because the guy turned out to be a fucking serial killer using his car as a weapon.

        • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
          34·
          8 months ago

          As I’ve said, this particular case is different. But why would the majority of hit and runs involve injuries? The majority of car accidents do not involve serious injuries. The ones that make the news do, but most accidents are minor

          • JoBo@feddit.uk
            42·
            8 months ago

            I’ve no idea why you’re wriggling so very hard to exonerate the police here but it is a really fucking terrible look. HTH

            • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
              35·
              8 months ago

              I’m not? I’ve said multiple times that this case is different.

              Once more, people, in general, should not be locked up for causing minor damage to another vehicle, even when they flee the scene.

              As I have said MULTIPLE times, if the hit and run involves targeting a person or a major crash that injures someone, that is different

              • JoBo@feddit.uk
                23·
                8 months ago

                No one has argued for anyone to be locked up for causing minor damage to inanimate objects.

                If you are unwilling to grapple with the details of this offender and/or unable to quit your knee-jerk defence of the police persistently ignoring the crimes of predators, just keep your fucking mouth shut.

                Before the first crash, on Aug. 22, 2023, witnesses saw a white sedan with a license plate number registered to Pham pull up beside a 36-year-old woman. She shrugged off the vehicle and began to run away when the car “sped up and hit [her] causing her to fly over the vehicle and land on the ground hard,” charging documents state. The driver then sped away.

                • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
                  32·
                  8 months ago

                  Except people have disagreed with my statements?

                  I’m not talking about the article, I’ve already discussed that in other threads. Of course they fucked up and should have more aggressively pursued Pham.

                  • JoBo@feddit.uk
                    22·
                    8 months ago

                    You’re on the wrong thread. I don’t care that you got here because you’re an idle blabbermouth who prefers spouting words to reading them. It’s well past time for you to fuck off.