Tag Archives: police work

crime news

Sentence causes heartburn

My first reaction to learning of the sentence given to a former Minneapolis police officer who shot a young man to death thinking she was firing a Taser at him, and not her pistol, was that she got off too lightly.

Former cop Kim Potter will serve two years in the slammer and on supervised probation in the shooting death of Daunte Wright.

Potter is a white woman; Wright was African American.

She got into a tussle with Wright during a stop. Wright started resisting arrest. Potter reached for her service pistol and shot Wright. She carried her Taser on the other side of her belt. The Taser is bright yellow; the pistol is black. They feel differently in the hand and they certainly look differently.

I was horrified when I first heard of the incident. How could a trained police officer make such a grievous error? How does one reach for one device thinking she was reaching for another one?

Potter deserved to spend the maximum amount of time after a jury convicted her of involuntary manslaughter. Then the thought occurred to me … finally! She didn’t intend to shoot Daunte Wright with her service weapon.

I am still wrestling with the correctness of the sentence. I guess I just am not as dumbstruck by the act as I was initially.

Potter is done with police work. Of that I am absolutely certain. It’s just as well, given the horrifying mistake she made in an incident that never should have ended as tragically as it did.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Nothing ‘routine’ about any aspect of police work

I believe I am going to scream at the top of my lungs the next time I hear a TV reporter/broadcaster refer to a “routine traffic stop.”

I once wrote that phrase early in my journalism career, only to get a friendly scolding from an Oregon sheriff who told me that “there is nothing routine about any traffic stop. Not ever.”

Lesson learned.

A police officer pulled a motor vehicle over in the Metroplex the other day on a traffic stop. The TV reporter called it “routine,” except that the motorists opened fire on the officer. Routine? Hardly.

Today, some Philadelphia police officers sought to issue an arrest warrant on a suspect. He then opened fire on the cops, injuring six of them. Thankfully, none of the officers’ wounds is life-threatening.

The gunman is still holed up as I write this blog post. I am hoping SWAT negotiators can talk the dude into surrendering.

Here’s my point: Police work is among the most dangerous jobs there is to do. The men and women who suit up every day and follow their oath to “serve and protect” the public from the bad elements of our society are heroes in every sense of the word.

I truly don’t want to scream when I hear the words “routine traffic stop.” If I do hear them, though, I am liable to lose control. I am going to seek the strength to restrain myself.

national news

As if police work isn’t dangerous enough …

Baton-Rouge-police-shooting-3-jpg

Do we need any more examples of the deadly hazards that await police officers every single day they report for work?

Five Dallas officers died the other night while they were patrolling a peaceful demonstration in the city’s downtown. Then a gunman opens fire on them.

Then today, Baton Rouge police respond to a 9-1-1 call. They show up to determine the nature of the call and someone ambushes them.

Three of them died today in yet another horrifying example of senseless violence being brought to police officers.

My response when I heard the horrible news? Good bleeping grief!

Baton Rouge police killed the gunman today. He has been identified and authorities say he lived in Kansas City, Mo. His motivation has not yet been determined. That will come in due course.

But today we mourn yet more police officers who have died in the line of duty.

I’ll be honest about this point: My first fear was that the gunman who opened fire today had targeted white police officers in the manner that the Dallas shooter did in response to earlier incidents involving the deaths of black men at the hands of white officers.

Then came word that one of the victims today has been identified as Montrell Jackson, a black officer — and the father of a small child.

We toss the word “hero” around much too loosely. The men and women who take the oath to serve and protect us do so with honor, with bravery and with dedication to the public they serve.

Yes, I know that not every one of those officers is honorable.

Then again, every profession has its bad actors. You hear about bad doctors, bad lawyers, bad civil engineers, bad reporters and editors.

Do we tar all those professions because some of their practitioners don’t measure up?

Today I am honoring the work that our law enforcement officers perform for their communities — for my community. My heart is broken over the loss they have suffered yet again.