Woman Shot By Aurora Police Was Disabled

[CO Liberal]

Yep....guns keep us safer - Wayne

* * * * * * * * * *

Woman Shot By Aurora Police Was Disabled

Aug 6, 2003 1:10 pm US/Mountain

AURORA, Colo. (KCNC) An Aurora police officer is on paid leave after he shot and killed a woman relatives said is mentally disabled.

This comes as the Denver Police Department will face Johnny Cochran in a lawsuit brought by a family after one of its officers shot and killed Paul Childs, a mentally disabled 15-year-old.

In both cases, the officer who fired said the subject had a weapon, and in both cases, relatives said police were too quick to use deadly force.

"If I had not made that decision to call police, I believe to this day my daughter would still be alive," said Russell Washington, whose 28-year-old daughter Denise was pronounced dead at a hospital after being shot by the officer.

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http://news4colorado.com/summerreports/local_story_218151530.html

[the_acid_one]

1. Yep....guns keep us safer - Wayne

No, i think what you meant was
"yep....cops keep us safer"

[jody]

2. Another sad incident, but law enforcement officers

committed 370 justifiable homicides in 2001. In 2001, there were 11,849,006 offenses reported to law enforcement and officers made approximately 2,245,597 arrests.

The incident you cite is very sad but, across law enforcement, there were remarkably few justifiable homicides, 370 out of 2,245,597 arrests.:-(

ON EDIT ADD
CO, I tried to find the number of "nonjustifiable homicides" but apparently that stat is not collected by law enforcement. To me, it is entirely plausible that one or more of the 370 "justifiable homicides" I cited above would have been an "unjustified homicide(s)" if properly investigated.

Policing and Homicide, 1976-98: Justifiable Homicide by Police, Police Officers Murdered by Felons

QUOTE
Nonjustifiable homicide by police

In addition to justifiable homicides by police, the SHR database also contains records of two other types of homicide:

• a record of each justifiable homicide by citizens

• a record of each murder.

While the database has primarily a statistical purpose, one statistic that is impossible to obtain from it (or from any currently existing database) is the number of murders by police. Murder is a type of nonjustifiable homicide. If a police officer deliberately kills someone and the homicide is not justified, that type of nonjustifiable homicide is supposed to go into the database as a "murder." Undoubtedly some of the "murders" in the SHR database are murders by police officers, but their number is unknown because nothing in the database distinguishes murders by police officers from murders committed by others. Consequently the annual number of nonjustifiable homicides by police in the United States is unknown.
UNQUOTE

[CO Liberal]

3. There Seems to Be a Problem in the Denver Area Right Now, Jody

As the lead story said, this is the second case recently where police officers have killed a mentally disabled person. Maybe a change is protocol is warranted.......

[Kenneth ken]

4. '...a change in protocol...'

that would require two changes as Denver and Aurora are separate PD's.


I always have a hard time with police shootings.

On the one hand, policemen are essential to maintaining a civil society, so I want to be supportive of them. OTOH, I know there are bad cops out there.

from the article: "They immediately shoved me out of the way," Washington told NEWS4, "and in a matter of seconds they were up on the steps and shot my daughter."

I can't tell if this menas there were multiple officers on the scene, or if it's just the father referring to one responding officer as "they" as in "the police." It makes a difference; if there were multiple officers responding, it seems they should have had a better first course of action than reaching for guns. Nor does it mention the officer(s?) length of service. A rookie would probably be more excitable than a ten-year veteran.

The only thing I can say for certain is the journalism is weak.

[Wonder]

5. gee I wonder what her problem was?

gender, race or disability or are these redundant?