Not hate crimes

I love reading Jim Kershner’s archives column. One of the things that strikes me is how often he reports that the policemen of a century ago would regularly shoot at fleeing criminals when nobody seemed to be in any immediate danger.

We are now more politically correct, and such blasting away at crooks is now deprecated. Caylin Novell’s May 8 letter suggests that the reports we have heard of such recent activities are hate crimes. Most reports of police shootings I have read about seem to start with an individual trying to run away from a legitimate police inquiry.

I do not have any social friends that are police. My very few interactions with the police have been quite courteous. So I can’t really put myself in their shoes. But considering the militaristic environment that law enforcement people have to live in, military ranks like sergeant and captain, saluting, guns, uniforms, and the expectation that when they give a lawful command people will do what they are told, I could see that when a perpetrator is running away a frustrated cop might lose it, and become a headline.

It may not be right in today’s environment, but it is not necessarily hate.

Dennis DeMattia

Spokane