Fear and the blue line
In the turbulent wake of Stephon Clark’s killing in Sacramento on March 18, only a small handful of readers has sent us relatively dispassionate commentaries, compared with the dozens that have written with more emotion. That’s to be expected in a case involving an unarmed 22year-old black man who was suspected of breaking multiple car windows being shot eight times by police in his grandparents’ backyard.
Notable among the letters were submissions from readers on both sides of the blue line — police officers who believe their life-or-death, split-second decisions generally should not be second-guessed, and civilians who allege persistent mistreatment by law enforcement because of their race — whose experiences inform and, in some cases, harden their commentary.
Greg Meyer, a retired Los Angeles Police Department captain, responds to an editorial:
The editorial board makes a reasonable argument that state lawmakers should “craft language that effectively raises the standard of performance without needlessly endangering the lives of officers or putting them in such fear of being criminally charged that they are unable to carry out their duties.”
Since January 2015, there have been about 170 American peace officers killed in the line of duty by gunfire. This happens when the officers do not recognize and react to the deadly threat soon enough.
Policy, training and officer accountability have already improved to the point where in the past 25 years, LAPD officer-involved shootings have decreased by 77%. Emotiondriven legislation that is intended to further handcuff the police will not improve the situation.
Los Angeles resident Charles Martin writes of his experiences with police as a black man:
It truly upsets me when people only see things from their point of view, so here’s another point of view. You should try being black for a while and then tell me how it feels; here’s what you will encounter:
You’ll be stopped just for walking down the street. You’ll be stopped for jogging. You’ll be the only one asked for ID when using a credit card. You’ll be asked to get on the ground for no reason. You’ll will be insulted for no other reason then being black. You’ll be arrested in a case of mistaken identity because you are black — I was in 1958, and I spent three days in jail.
Winnetka resident Mike Post, a former police chief, mentions officers “in the heat of the moment”:
Hindsight is a great thing, but what gets left out of the discussion is how often a police department might be sued if it had done nothing to intervene and, say, some knife-wielder went on to stab someone.
This is not a conservative-versus-liberal debate, just one of common sense about well-intentioned cops who are presented with only bad options to pick in the heat of the moment. What’s alarming is the number of people who feel they have more insight than the men and women on the street who risk their lives daily.