The Denver Postjim spencer
Room 20-B can't fathom Turney case
Sunday, April 18, 2004 -
What should I tell the kids in Room 20-B at Monaco Elementary School?
What should I tell a bunch of fourth-graders about why Denver police officer James Turney can kill a developmentally disabled teenager and keep his job? They will want to know. With their teacher, Anthony Vigil, they have studied the Turney case for months as a civics lesson. So they will need someone to explain how a policeman can shoot a retarded, legally blind kid with a seizure disorder and get 10 months off. The kids in 20-B invited me to their school in Commerce City a few weeks ago. They read me essays they had written about the death of Paul Childs. They showed me posters they had drawn. The words and pictures showed that the 9- and 10-year-olds understood the facts of the tragedy. They knew Childs held a knife and wouldn't drop it. They knew Childs' sister called 911 and asked the police to come help. They knew that officers arrived, cleared Childs' home and called him out from behind a door. They knew Childs was ordered to drop the knife, but didn't. They knew Childs shuffled toward Turney, but never made a threatening move with the knife. They knew Turney shot Childs dead within a few seconds of confronting him. What they will not comprehend is how a teen's life is worth no more than a 10-month suspension. And they will be especially vexed by the real possibility that the Denver civil service commission or the courts might rule that this punishment is too harsh. You see, the kids in Room 20-B at Monaco Elementary have never dealt with "comparative discipline." To 9- and 10-year-olds, a concept that dictates that if you go easy on one cowboy cop, you must go easy on them all doesn't sound like justice. Nor will the kids in 20-B grasp city leaders' claims that voters must change the Denver charter to end "comparative discipline." The children also won't understand why the police use-of-force policy must be rewritten before the wrist-slapping of killer cops can end. Most of all, the fourth-graders will struggle with the distinction Denver Manager of Safety Al LaCabe made in announcing Turney's punishment: "Officer Turney made a number of tactical and judgment errors" before he shot Childs, LaCabe said. The biggest mistake was calling Childs out from behind the front door after everyone else was out of the house. But then comes the twist. LaCabe ruled that once Turney wrongly called Childs out, the policeman was justified in shooting Childs. That's because Childs was holding a knife within 6 feet of Turney. In other words, it was Turney's fault for calling Childs out, but not Turney's fault for killing Childs. That reasoning addles my adult brain. It will surely confound the juvenile minds in Room 20-B at Monaco Elementary. Several students drew pictures of Childs' mother and sister watching the shooting. One poster had the two pleading, "Stop killing, please." Another student drew Childs begging Turney, "Don't kill me." A third drew Turney standing over Childs with his gun drawn. "What do you want from me?" the boy in the picture asks. The real Paul Childs never asked this question. Because of his disabilities, he "may not even have been aware" of what was happening, LaCabe admitted. "But he did move forward" with the knife. Under existing Denver Police Department use-of-force rules, that meant Childs could be killed. It also meant James Turney couldn't be fired. Much less sent to prison. Firing and prison. That's what's supposed to happen to killers, the kids in 20-B believed. "I don't care if he is an officer, he committed a crime, and he has to go to jail no matter what," wrote Justina Urbina. Otherwise, wrote Genesis Galdean, he can say, "I can now kill anyone I want to because I can get away with it." "If I was that cop," Ryan Palmer added, "I would go over there and get the knife from Paul Childs. I would also tackle him - not kill him. ... He didn't lunge at them, so why did Turney shoot him?" Unique Rodriguez answered that by reflecting the saddest lesson this tragedy teaches. "If I was the mom of Paul Childs, I wouldn't have called the cops," the little girl wrote. "I would have just locked the knives up from the little boy. If I was that boy, I would have just put (the knife) down. I would have just gone to jail. I would still be alive. If I was Turney, I would have done the right thing. I wouldn't have killed Paul Childs. I really feel sorry for both of them." There's not a kid in Room 20-B at Monaco Elementary who doesn't. So I'll tell them what I did the first time we met. I'll tell them most Denver police officers do a hard job well. But the current disciplinary system can't handle the handful who don't. I think they'll understand. I know at least one of them will. Jairo Ruiz got to the question that should drive the city charter revisions and police policy changes that are so long overdue in Denver. "How," this fourth-grader wondered, "do you protect someone by killing him?" |