What Were They Thinking; Police Edition, or"If He Had Shot an Entire Family, He'd Be Cop of the Decade!"

This story ran in yesterday's Times[1]:

A police union has given the officer who shot and killed a Pace University football player during a disturbance in Westchester County last year its Officer of the Year award.

There was a huge stink over that shooting. The cop claimed that the football player, Danroy Henry, Jr., hit him with his car. There were more than a few witnesses who said the cop was lying, though the officer had (or claimed to have) injured his knee.

Maybe the cop's story was true. Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that it is.

There is a grieving family that is contemplating suing.[2] The Feds have opened a civil rights investigation. If the local chapter of the PBA[3] wanted to pour gasoline on this matter, they probably could not have come up with a better way to do it.
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[1] Page A22, right above a "notice of public hearing."
[2] Which would probably be filed in the Bronx, where juries are known to be far more sympathetic to victims in such cases.
[3] One of those hated "public sector unions". The PBA, statewide, is known for having one of those bogus charity fundraisers that call you during dinnertime and which allegedly take on the order of 95% of the donation for "administrative costs". The fundraisers fail to mention the point that the police pensions in NY are rather generous.