The Denver Postletters
Letters: Denver police shooting
Tuesday, April 20, 2004 - Conscientious decision Re: "Turney gets 10-month ban; Officer who shot teen will have desk job when suspension ends," April 16 news story. Winston Churchill once said that a country without a conscience is a country without a soul, and a country without a soul cannot survive. Thank you, Mayor John Hickenlooper and Manager of Safety Al LaCabe, for showing that Denver has a conscience. And to the 99.5 percent of the police officers who serve with courage, good judgment, compassion and restraint on a daily basis, thank you. We admire you. Officer James Turney is not representative of you. He is an aberration. He needs love and compassion, as well as psychiatric help, but must not be let loose on the streets again.
Monday morning QB Re: "Room 20-B can't fathom Turney case," April 18 Jim Spencer column. I can't see why Jim Spencer did not openly state his real opinion of Denver police officer James Turney's shooting of Paul Childs - namely that Turney should be burned at the stake, or maybe staked out over an ant hill. After all, what kind of police are we hiring when, alone and faced with someone approaching them with a weapon, they wouldn't first administer a mental competency test before taking action? Or maybe we don't impress enough on our police that they should be willing to die rather than make a mistake when threatened with deadly force? After all, we're only asking police to answer unknown situations in citywide homes and neighborhoods with the daily potential to meet their own unexpected death. Why should we expect any officer to feel uneasy or threatened to the point of giving only one or two warnings before defending himself? Let's admit that the shooting of Paul Childs was a tragic, regrettable accident. Let's even admit that Turney made a mistake in letting himself be alone in a potentially hazardous situation. But once that procedural mistake was made, the following events were not something that Spencer's Monday morning quarterbacking can explain. If Turney let someone with a knife approach him, he could have been the body on the floor.
Different rules? Jim Spencer's column could be used as an example of logical fallacy for students taking critical thinking classes. I don't know if Denver police officer James Turney is trigger-happy or not; such cops certainly do exist. But I am curious as to how Spencer would like to see Denver police practices changed. Should developmentally disabled people be allowed to get closer than 6 feet while holding a knife? What if the person is just pretending, so he can get close enough to use the knife? Or should the distance be 1 foot for everybody, as long as they don't lunge at the officer until they are close enough for the lunge to be effective?
Officer should resign The solution to the James Turney debacle is for Turney to resign from the police department and seek another line of work. The only honorable thing left that might possibly satisfy all concerned parties is for him to choose to leave of his own volition and put to rest the debates over the type and degree of punishment due him.
Luxury vs. necessity
Re: "Amenities, ads lure affluent to hospitals; Denver-area facilities offer luxury touches," April 12 news story.
We do not believe The Post accurately represented our situation. Our 9-year-old son Sean had a benign tumor in his right eye socket. It was growing rapidly, pushing his eye out, distorting his face and changing his vision. It was bleeding on a regular basis. Doctors in Seattle said there was nothing they could do short of removing his eye. Searching for any treatment for our son, we found the Rocky Mountain Cyberknife Center and Dr. David Martin on the Internet. Dr. Martin returned our phone call, and with his calm demeanor said, "I have all the time in the world. Tell me about your son's clinical condition." The subsequent Cyberknife treatment did not hurt; there was no incision or recovery pain. Sean's eye stopped bleeding two weeks after treatment. Your staff had an opportunity to educate your readership about a non-invasive surgery that can be used to successfully treat inoperable tumors. We allowed you to use our son's name with the hope that people could see that this type of surgery could be used successfully in pediatric cases. You failed to mention that most insurances cover the Cyberknife. Ours did. We did not come to Colorado seeking luxury accommodations or amenities. We are not affluent. We came to Colorado because Dr. Martin and the Cyberknife offered hope to our family after countless doctors couldn't give us any. It's been three months since the treatment, and the changes in Sean's eye and face are amazing. There were no luxury amenities, only caring people, and amazing technology that worked.
Homelessness is solvable; recent aid will help Re: "Federal grants to help city's homeless; HUD gives $500,000 for permanent housing; VA offers up to $800,000 for services to veterans," April 13 news story. The recent granting of federal aid to support Denver's homeless is a wonderful start to addressing a badly overlooked area of justice and rights. Many people, myself included, overlook or dismiss the poor and homeless on the streets of Denver. This is an abysmal travesty of justice, as there is no reason anybody in this country should be living in Third World conditions. Yet this aid is just a start, as it affords permanent housing for 70 homeless residents and military veterans. This amounts to a drop in the bucket for the other approximately 9,700 people who are homeless in the Denver metro area alone. While homelessness is a complex issue, it is by no means an unsolvable one. There are many things ordinary citizens can do to improve the living conditions and environments of the homeless, 51 percent of whom are families. From monetary donations to working for Habitat for Humanity to demanding laws that refuse to let our poor slip through the cracks of justice, each person can make a difference to ensure everyone has affordable housing, wages and health care.
Justice Department should investigate Campbell Re: "Campbell should clarify role," April 17 editorial. I agree with The Denver Post that a complete investigation of Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell and his staff should be undertaken by the Department of Justice and the IRS. These allegations of misconduct are not minor matters. The senator's turning over of the evidence to the Senate Ethics Committee is no substitute for a criminal investigation. Put aside the political nature of the committee within the friendly confines of the Senate - senators are notoriously reluctant to criticize, let alone indict, their colleagues. Then consider that the committee has no jurisdiction over retired senators or even fired staff. The committee, even if its findings are ever made public, can do nothing to punish the senator or staff once Campbell leaves office. If the allegations are true, Campbell could skate away from a number of serious violations of the law. And the matter of kickbacks of wages and bonuses of his staff is a very serious allegation. Just ask Campbell's colleague from his House years, Rep. James Traficant, who was convicted of a similar kickback scheme and is now serving eight years in a federal penitentiary.
No Iraqi patriots? Seven hundred - going on 1,000 - American soldiers killed in Iraq. Thousands of American soldiers wounded. We, the American public, are constantly being told that it is but a small number of Iraqis and outsiders doing the killing. If that is the case, why aren't the majority of Iraqis arming themselves and helping the coalition? Don't they have any patriotism? It appears they prefer to remain as spectators to the deaths of American soldiers and others in the coalition.
Adding to the death toll The hijackers killed 3,000 Americans, and now Bush and Cheney have added more than 20 percent to that, with more than 700 Americans killed so far. To those who still support President Bush on this, I ask: Why, and by what measure, is this worth it?
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