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Stressful job can cause mistakes
(by Dave Lange - July 21, 2010)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Stressful job can cause mistakes
Often lost in the fog when police are accused of abuse and excessive force is the stress that officers face in protecting the public and apprehending criminals.
It was due in no small part to the quick and professional response of Solon police to a reported burglary in progress on Elm Hill Drive June 21 that a 42-year-old Warrensville Heights man was apprehended and charged with a second-degree felony. Most of the stolen property was recovered. Law enforcement sometimes is a violent business, and the use of firearms goes with the territory.
Other than the officers themselves, nobody knows what went through their minds when they were called to the crime scene that day and spotted two juveniles nearby -- a 16-year-old boy and his 12-year-old sister -- "running, stopping, walking backwards and running again." Not the children's mother, not the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and not the news media. But all of us should ask questions about what happened next.
According to the two juveniles and the officers on the scene, guns were pulled, the youths were ordered to the ground, handcuffs were applied, and they were detained for a matter of moments.
No one disputes that the brother and sister's actions of running, stopping and running again were suspicious, even though they were completely innocent. They had been in a hurry to meet their mother at a specific time, but it was natural to stop and turn to watch police cruisers flashing past.
It also would be natural for a 12-year-old to begin crying after being ordered to the ground at gunpoint, for her big brother to try to calm her distress and, perhaps, for one of the officers to tell him to "shut up," as the children reported. And it is not beyond conception that the boy's head was forcefully pushed back down to the sidewalk, as he reported.
The Solon Police Department's internal investigation into the incident was conciliatory, to be sure. "Hindsight being what it is," the report said, "it is apparent that no Solon police employee, knowing what they know now, would have put the complainants through this incident."
Despite the empathy and concern expressed in the report, a high priority in most such internal investigations is to cover officers' butts. This one does do that, finding no violation of the law or police procedure and no racial bias against the two black children. According to the report, the 16-year-old was wearing a baseball cap, as was the burglary suspect, who also was black. The suspect was much older and already in custody, but he could have had a young accomplice accompanied by an even younger girl, I suppose.
The NAACP wants to know how many times Solon police have pulled guns on 12-year-old girls and whether the same situation would have occurred if she were not black. I can assure the NAACP that guns have been pulled on 16-year-old white boys, as well as black youths, in Solon.
In recent months, Solon has experienced three armed robberies and a reported armed confrontation outside a fourth business. There have been a number of burglaries in and around the city during that time. And incidents of violent crime involving juveniles in the community have been all too common recently.
Police need to be able to do their jobs. But when they make mistakes, they need to acknowledge them, and they need to apologize sincerely.
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