Officer shouldn’t be charged

The district attroney is wrong to charge former Milwaukee Police Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown with homicide in the death of Sylville Smith (“DA charges former cop with homicide,” Dec. 16).

The assertion that the officer should be punished because he failed to alter his response less than two seconds after initially firing his weapon is the worst form of armchair quarterbacking and puts the rest of our society in danger. The officer was still actively pursuing an armed suspect, who was fleeing police, and who actually turned and pointed his weapon at the pursuing police. That the gun left the suspect’s hand a split second before the second shot is a distinction only relevant to Monday Night Football.

We train a professional police force and rightly expect that its members handle weapons, situations and threats better than average citizens. And in a civil society we absolutely expect that officers are honest in their intent and actions.

Since lawmaking and enforcement can lead to more professional abuse than grocery clerks and press operators, body cameras can help society maintain a just law enforcement system. But these same cameras should not be used by lay people to second-guess peak situations.

We do not want a police force that grows unwilling to risk apprehending criminals nor one that hardens to outside checks. As a society, we want good, human officers. We’ll regret the consequences, if we demand super-human instead. Mike Utschig Wauwatosa