In a message dated 11/24/00 10:26:26 AM Central Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< squad car officers are
trained to see something different than you who were also not there are
seeing.
That means that the city's population and the line officers--and hence all
other
police personnel (they come up through the ranks)--have two different (at
minimum) logic bases from which we are trying to discuss the issue.
If the line officer is trained thus: "it's winter, it's cold, this big guy
has
been driving erratically and he's in his underwear. When people go
ballistic,
the training says they are going to blow any second and they gain incredible
adrenelin strength. Ergo, this guy is way dangerous." >>
The scenario presented in Wizards post is alarming, even as police encounters
evidence its truth. We are not discussing SOG's,SEAL's, or SFO's, we are
discussing a civilian force (Peace officers?) licensed to protect the
citizenry from the bad guys. The subject she describes may be partially
dressed and driving erratically for any number of reasons, including physical
assault which would produce the same characteristics in behaviour. According
to her defense, this "victim" is then condemned to die, at the hands of those
licensed to protect him/her. To wizards credit, this revelation seems
appropriate to the police response in their latest killings.
For the sake of all Minnesotans, I sincerely hope that Wizard over-spoke on
this issue. However, a caveat: Ms. Marks statement shouyld not be written
off as pure conjuncture-it may well be true. Assuming the latter, it is
imperative that the mission of the police be re-defined in service to the
public, and that training to respond to crisis be overhauled, upgraded, and
honed to the extent that their logic base, whichever they react from,
empowers them to properly judge when "extreme force" is necessary.
Robert Anderson
8th Ward.
p.s.: Holle, I regret your recent misfortune and hope that all is well with
you.
