PAX Centurion - Winter 2016 - 2017

Page 22 • PAX CENTURION • Winter 2016-2017 617-989-BPPA (2772) W ITH THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ECLIPSING most recent news coverage of local concern, many of us may have overlooked the gross display of naïveté, ignorance and outright anti-police bias which appeared in the pages of the Globe and the Herald recently in regards to the Officer- involved shooting of Terrence Coleman in the South End on October 30 th , 2016. It is somewhat understandable to accept the uninformed opinions of the family members of Mr. Coleman as simply “misdirected anger” that anyone suffering the sudden and unexpected loss of a loved one might express. Most of us can understand the lashing out at authority, the grasping at straws that comes from such a loss, especially when we know that nefarious forces motivated by an anti- police agenda are operating in the background, using that family’s grief and anger to further their political cause, as deplorable as that may be. We can at least understand where that mind-set comes from, while totally disagreeing with the substance of the opinions expressed. But when self-described “mental-health experts” and naïve residents of wealthy suburbs begin offering their thoroughly uninformed, ridiculous assessments of the officer’s actions through the opinion pages of the local media, well, that’s when we start getting angry here at the BPPA. In early November, the Globe and the Herald printed several letters in regards to this incident, none of them from police officers who have actually been involved in these type of incidents: • June S. Binney, Director of Criminal Justice Diversion, National Alliance of Mental Illness of Massachusetts, ( Globe , letters, A11, 11/4/16) opines that police officers need more training and tools to deal with mentally ill people and the intervention of a Crisis Team may have been helpful. Sounds great, June! “Training and tools” are always great, especially when training is conducted in warm, comfortable surroundings Monday thru Friday, 9-5, with snacks and coffee and a buffet lunch served in between the distribution of the “tools” (whatever those are…) . Unfortunately, June, the officers in this case, and in most mental-health cases, have split-seconds to act or they end up dead. Devise some “training” to deal with two-seconds of terror in the form of a knife-wielding EDP, June. Let us know what you come up with… • Sylvia Ferrell-Jones, President and CEO , YW, Boston ( Globe , letters, A11, 11/4/16) states that the BPD should “acknowledge Coleman’s mother’s claim that he was unarmed when shot…even if the facts are in dispute…” and “ …This tragic incident confirms what black communities and their allies have known all along – that Boston is not immune.” Ah, NO, Sylvia. “Acknowledging lies” is never a good idea, not even if the lie helps to assuage Hope Coleman’s pain. The truth and the facts are what must be acknowledged, no matter how painful. Terrance Coleman WAS armed, and HE DID assault two EMT’s and two police officers with a knife. THOSEARE THE FACTS, Sylvia. The fact that Mass. Mental Health treatment crisis “dumped and blamed” on first responders Naïveté, ignorance and bias prompt barrage of anti-police letters after South End, Officer-involved shooting By James W. Carnell, Pax Editor Terrence Coleman was African-American had NO bearing in this case – NONE WHATSOEVER. For you or for anyone to inject the false and inflammatory issue of racial bias, inferring that race had anything whatsoever to do with this tragic incident, is despicable. Acknowledge that , Sylvia. • Vera Spohr, Littleton, ( Globe, 11/7/16, letters to editor) states “I have long wondered why police don’t seem able to shoot people without killing them, and why they shoot to kill. If I were shot in the arm, or leg, or shoulder or thigh, I’d stop whatever I had been doing. A police officer should be able to keep a cool head and aim for a non-lethal area of the human body, police might even be trained to take down someone without using a gun. Lethal force should never be used if anything less would be effective.”… Thank you very much, Vera. You are both right and terribly wrong, not to mention incredibly naïve, but inasmuch, you are like much of the general public. ( Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they say or do .) Vera, police officers are already trained to use only the amount of force required to accomplish the job at hand. Thank you for telling us what we already know. No police officer ever comes to work wanting to discharge their weapon, never mind kill anyone. But when confronted with a deranged man swinging a knife and having roughly ½ of a split-second to make a decision, the choice for any and all police officers is clear: stop the threat – immediately, quickly, and decisively- and save your life and the lives of any and all innocent people you are able to, at that moment in time. And yes, Vera, if you were shot in the leg or arm, you would probably stop what you were doing. Unfortunately, Vera, mentally-disturbed people or people under the influence of drugs sometimes do not; in fact, mind-altering substances and/or mental illness can make them temporarily stronger and immune to “wounding” shots, if such were even possible. Vera Spohr suffers from the same TV / video-game mentality as does most of America. There is no “stop-action, rewind/replay” in police work. That sounds good over a cup of tea in Littleton, Vera. But there is no “shooting to wound” or “just wing ’em” in the real world. Got it, Vera? One lump or two? Honey or lemon?... • Gerald Sweet, Newton, Psychology Professor at William James College ( Herald, 11/15/16, letters to Editor) “What would be best in a situation such as this is a team of law enforcement officers trained in crisis intervention strategies working with an experienced mental health professional.” Apparently, Gerald and Vera know each other. Gerald, along the lines of “Welcome to the real world…,” the request for police involvement in mental health issues almost always comes in the form of a 911 – emergency call or on-sight encounter, to which the police are required to respond immediately. There is no time for the assembling of “teams of professionals” trained in the particulars of mental health issues. There is no time for reviewing of an individual’s mental health/medical records, as if such private, personal documents would ever be available to the police for review and inspection in the first place (How many people do you think would “OK” the police being able to review their personal medical