Police are getting away with murder – quite literally on occasion. In Spokane, Washington, a police officer beat, tasered, bound, and sat on Otto Zehm. Zehm was an innocent mentally disabled man, and later died as a result of the altercation. Can we agree this is outrageous?

If that isn’t enough to get you fired up, hear this: the police officer who committed the torture and murder of this innocent man, Officer Karl Thompson, was sentenced to only four years on a charge of excessive force. I would say this is a failure of our law enforcement and signals some very flawed elements in our judicial system.

Let me back up and give you the details, just in case you’re not convinced that Thompson is at fault and was simply ‘doing his job.’ In 2006, Otto Zehm was heading to a convenience store to buy some candy, as he usually does after his shift as a school janitor. Nearby, two women had called police after allegedly having money stolen from them at an ATM.

Once Officer Thompson arrived, he went for Zehm in the convenience store, believing he may have matched the robber’s description. Store surveillance shows that Thompson then immediately gave Zehm seven strikes of his baton within eight minutes and without warning. Thompson then proceeded to use his taser on Zehm, handcuffed and hog-tied him, and placed a rubber mask over his face along with other officers. Finally, the officers sat on the innocent man.

Otto Zehm’s final words were, “All I wanted was a Snickers bar.” Zehm then lost consciousness and died two days later. He was also not involved in stealing money at any point during the night, but Officer Thompson would not know this as he decided to torture first and ask questions later. Thompson was never threatened during the encounter, and Zehm showed no signs of resisting or aggressive behavior.

How did Officer Thompson end up with a mere four-year sentence? Meanwhile, a Florida woman received a 20-year sentence for firing a warning shot to scare off her abusive husband. How can this even be justified in our country?

Sadly, this is not the only case of brutal police encounters. Unfortunately, worse crimes are committed routinely, and many officers are even acquitted of any charges at all. You may argue that they’re being cautious, but in the case of Otto Zehm’s murder, this goes well beyond that. You may even argue that police officers see a lot of stress on the job and may be highly alert around potential suspects, possibly stepping over a boundary once in a while.

This case goes well beyond any accidental action and is a clear case of an officer not properly trained, of insufficient mental standing, and/or high on their own power. Officers need to be regularly checked for mental stability or regularly retrained on proper and necessary procedure. Let us learn from Otto Zehm’s death and make sure our officers are capable of doing their job and are punished appropriately when they clearly fail to commit to upholding the law and their own procedures.