April 26, 2004

WHAT LACK OF CLARITY?

It's perfectly understandable that hundreds of Denver police turned out for a protest last week because they resent the 10-month suspension of Officer James Turney for the fatal shooting last summer of Paul Childs. The Hickenlooper admin- istration freely admits the punishment broke ground in several respects. That was part of the idea.

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What disturbs us is the insistence by some police that the rules of engagement are no longer clear and they won't know how to react when doing their jobs. Nonsense. Nothing has changed regarding their right to protect themselves with lethal force when they believe they are in danger. The message that Safety Manager Al LaCabe was trying to send is as follows: Tactics matter, too.

In Turney's case, for example, he knew the Childs house had been emptied of everyone except a young man with a knife who stood hidden behind the open front door. The officer could have stepped back from the doorstep before calling Childs to come out and perhaps averted the ensuing confrontation. But Turney didn't, and once Childs appeared and wouldn't drop the knife, the shooting was all but inevitable.

Tactics matter - perhaps particularly when the result of flawed tactics is the death of a developmentally disabled young man.

A REMARKABLE LIFE

It will have been said and written a thousand times or more by the time you read this, but we can't help joining the chorus of praise for Pat Tillman upon his death last week in Afghanistan. He gave up a multimillion football contract to defend his country and paid the ultimate price as a result. Who says this is a world without heroes?

Copyright 2004, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.