Letter: Police culture should stress execution as last resort

A city asking the Police Policy Studies Council if a police officer was justified gunning down a person is like a chef asking Julia Child if butter is needed.

The council is a strong advocate of shoot first, as any delay may be injurious to oneself. They even talk about how to shoot a person who may have a knife standing far away because he may throw it at you and you can claim self defense to a jury. They use the same defense argument even with no weapon, as it may be hidden.

If in doubt, shoot! Excellent advice sensible soldiers should follow, but not so great for police departments. The council’s logic means an officer is justified killing me when I reach towards the glove box to get my registration papers during a routine traffic stop, as I may be reaching for a weapon.

The culture and training should stress execution as an absolute last resort. I wholeheartedly support the good police officers and the dangerous job they do. I’m glad they are not in an even more dangerous occupation like logging. Or fishing. Or mining, construction, farming, ranching, roofing, utility line worker, iron worker, etc.

Richland

This story was originally published October 7, 2015 at 6:35 PM with the headline "Letter: Police culture should stress execution as last resort."