In Aurora J. F. Deane

It's so unjust! Lisa Aulman (sp) is in jail for life and she was in the car. Turney is free to kill again and he had back up, a tazer and the choice to move away.

He appears to be unmoved by his actions. I wonder if he even attempted to at least apologize. Would the media have reported it if he had?

Anymore you don't even have to wait for the outcome of an investigation of a police officer. It's always, "they're cleared of any wrong doings". Why have an investigation?

Second, as far as the family saying that they just wanted the officer to give the child a "talking-to" and "straighten him out", I think that they may believe that was what they wanted, but for that you don't call 911. Looking back upon the loss of a family member, they may wish that was all that had happened, but an officer responded to an emergency call for a teen weilding a knife and not a non-emergency call for a little "tough love".

Thirdly, I do personally believe that maybe the officer could have used a little less deadly force. But again, I was not there and I am not that officer, so if in his response to the emergency call and the situation at the scene he really and trully felt so threatened that he judged shooting the teen was the choice necessary, then he should not be held responsible.

Lastly, regardless of who is right there will not be any winners here. I think people should remeber that this is a tragic loss of life, and it also still involves the lives of people living: the family and friends of the teen and that of the officer. Even if he used his judgement to the best of his abilities and is not at fault, he will still have to live with the fact that a 15-year-old is dead. So before all of you jump to conclusions, remeber that there are human beings involved here and try to be a little sympathetic to all of those involved here.

A person comes home from a long day at work to discover their front door is unlocked, opened and peering it it looks like they may have been robbed. I think most reasonable people in that situation would call 911. Now the police are there, who puts their life on the line, potentionally walking straight into the path of a bullet to protect you and make sure your home is safe.

Obviously the above situation is not the norm, obviously most calls in that case would not result in a police officer getting shot, but they put their life on the line nontheless. We as a society have a choice to make, protect the officers or protect the suspect/victim.

If we protect the suspect/victim then we encourage our officers to only use deadly force when it is blatently obvious that there was no other choice. However, obvious is an opinion based term. I know I would not stab an officer, but if I have a knife and am walking towards him, he doesn't know that.

In my opinion we simply must protect the officers, they are the front line, they are the ones who risk their lives. I wouldn't go into my neighbor's home to look for a thief, and I know him and like him, but an officer will, without question, without knowing him.

Is it possible for an officer to use force when they don't need to? Sure. If I'm unarmed, cooperating, and or in handcuffs, don't hurt me, but if I have a weapon and am not making any show of cooperation (black, hispanic, retarded, or not) they have a right to protect themselves just as I would.

I ask this of all those who say they over-reacted: Would you have continued to let him advance on you with a weapon?

Andy

Sharon;

I guess I will have to disagree with some of your opinions. First, I will get it out in the open that I am a police officer and I can attest to the training that I have received.

You indicate in your post that â¬SSo to think that when you call 911 for help, that you may become a victim of the ones charged with keeping the peace and enforcing the laws of this nation is totally unacceptable.â¬Ì First of all, you are obviously an adult with problem solving capabilities, and deal with conflict in your own way. When you call 9-1-1, the situation is one in which you obviously know that you cannot handle yourself and need help with. An officer will show up and attempt to defuse the situation. If you attack the police with a weapon, they will defend themselves. If you act disorderly, you may be arrested and/or charged. But lets be honest here. The police are not going to come to your house in an attempt to make you a â¬Svictimâ¬Ì. Why would they when they are the ones that left their family and the security of their own home, getting into their uniform and took the call you called 9-1-1 with. The police will, to the best of their abilities, attempt to resolve the situation.

Now lets say the call or the incident that the police are dealing with turns into a use of force situation. Let me quote you here, â¬ÌNow if the police wish to quail a situation that they deem is out of control, they have the rights to use any amount of reasonable force to settle it.â¬Ì This is true, but let me add and change around your words to the proper terminology here. Police have the legal grounds to use a reasonable and appropriate degree of force. Believe it or not, if you do some reading and researching on what is called the â¬Sforce continuemâ¬Ì, a police officer in uniform is actually a degree of force. Itâ¬"s called â¬SPolice Presenceâ¬Ì. When an officer shows up, sometimes that is all that is needed to stop an incident. In your words, â¬SLets use an analogy.â¬Ì You are speeding 2 miles per hour over the posted speed limit. You see a uniformed police officer or marked patrol car running radar, you automatically slow down. Why? Because you immediately identify the uniform or police car and know that they are looking for speeders or other traffic violators. Lets use another â¬Sanalogyâ¬Ì. You are having a verbal argument with somebody that caused a big enough scene/commotion to have the police summoned. When a uniformed officer shows up, a â¬Sreasonable personâ¬Ì would know to stop yelling and causing a scene because the officer is obviously not there to talk about the weather. That in a nutshell is where the police use of force begins.

You continue to say in your post, â¬SNow either the reasonable force law has too broad a definition that needs to be amended, or the disciplinary actions taken needs to be amended, to hold those involved accountable until further investigation.â¬Ì Lets look at the word â¬Sreasonableâ¬Ì as defined on Encarda.com. NOTE: I have posted some, but not the complete definition. Reasonable is defined as rational: sensible and capable of making rational judgments, in accord with common sense: acceptable and according to common sense, not expecting more than is possible: not expecting or demanding more than is possible or achievable. Now lets look at the word â¬Sforceâ¬Ì. The word â¬Sforceâ¬Ì from the same website is defined as power or strength: the power, strength, or energy that somebody or something possesses, physical power: physical power, effort, or violence used against somebody or something that resists, effectiveness or validity: the condition of being effective, valid, or applicable, somebody or something with great influence: somebody or something that has great power or influence, especially in a particular field, police officers: a professional body of police officers.

If you were familiar with the criminal justice system you would know there are checks and balances. Weâ¬"ll use a shooting scenario in my explanation of how things generally operate. A shooting is reviewed by the agency that the officer works for or a â¬SJudicial Shoot Teamâ¬Ì, the District Attorney and a Grand Jury. The District Attorney can choose to pursue charges, the Grand Jury had the right to issue a â¬Strue billâ¬Ì or a â¬Sno billâ¬Ì. The department will determine if there was a violation of policy and whether or not the officerâ¬"s actions were in accordance with Standard Operating Procedures (S.O.P.). If all is found to be â¬Sreasonableâ¬Ì and the â¬Sforceâ¬Ì was appropriate, nothing should happen to the officer. After looking at the definitions, there is some decision making involved when you are involved in a life or death or serious bodily injury incident. If an officer shows up in uniform and you use a weapon or use some degree of force against the officer, the officer has the right to use force against that individual. An â¬Sanalogyâ¬Ì, you have a knife or bludgeon. You are close to me, (P.O.S.T. standard is 21â¬" or closer) and I fear that I, or another person is going to receive serious bodily injury or death. I can use deadly physical force to stop you.