Police Use of DeadlyForce: The Death of Paul Child
On July 5th,2003, a mentally disabled 15-year-old boy who was armed with a knife wasfatally shot by a Denver police officer. (McQueen, 2003) The teenager, PaulChild, was a black boy with developing mental disability and suffered fromseizures. When the James Turney and his colleagues arrived at the scene, theyevacuated the house and only Paul Child was inside the house. The police askedhim to drop the knife, but he did not obey. Denver police are taught that if someone armed with a knife is within 21 feet of the officer,
the officer can shoot.The police officer shot to stop the threat. Therewere non-lethal taser guns available but one police official said officers had noclear shot at Paul.
The whole process took 4minutes and 4 seconds, from the time Ashley Child called 911 to the time herbrother was shot. (Kelly, 2003) D.A. Ritter said that his office could notprove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was unreasonable for Officer Turney toperceive that Child was an imminent deadly threat to him or the other officersat the instant he fired (Lindsay, 2003) in accordance with the “21-foot rule”.
The family sued thepolice officer and the city. Denver city reached a 1.325 billion USD settlementwith the Child’s family and Officer Turney received 10 months suspensionwithout payments. Officer appealed at Denver’s civil service commission. Laterthe previous decision was reversed and final punishment was announced. OfficerJames Turney needed a five-day suspension and a fine for threatening hisex-mother-in-law by telephone while on duty. But no penalty at all for killingChild.
Although there isenormous community reaction towards the case and most of the public ideas arenot favoring the police officer, I still think it would be more appropriate tonot discipline the police officer for killing Paul Child.
By the time the policeofficers arrived at the scene, the only information they had was Paul Child hasa six-inch kitchen knife in his hand and intended to stab his mother They mightknow that Paul Child was suffered from mental problem since Helen Childmentioned that local police officers used to walk Paul Child home when shecouldn’t find him. However, police officers often do not have the luxury ofbeing able to talk to everyone involved in a developing incident. (Kolts, 2003).In fact, when Ashley Child called 911,Her
description to 911operators of what was happening in the house wasmuch more dire than what those in the house would later recount. (Johnson,2003) When confronting Paul Child, Officer James Turney was dangerously closeto him. The distance between Turney and Child was only 4-6 feet which was wellwithin the distance set by the “21-foot rule”. Turney asked him to put theknife down but he refused to obey the police officer’s order by not droppingthe knife and keeping on approaching Turney. At this moment, Paul Child isposing a serious lethal threat to James Turney and potentially other PoliceOfficers near him. It would be perfect if the police can subdue Paul Childwithout killing him.However, if there was no safe way to do
so, I find firing an acceptable option.Several commentators also seem tobelieve police should assume that weapon-toting young men will back down ifgiven sufficient opportunity. But police can't make such assumptions becauseexperience teaches them otherwise. (Carrol, 2003) Fighting with crime every dayand dealing with all kinds of threats, Police should understand that anysituation can go wrong at any time and it is their job to make sure thatnothing goes wrong. No assumption should be made when confronting a person withlethal weapon in his or her hand.
Numerous similar cases happened before such tragedy. Just one yearearlier, on January 30th, 2002, Gregory Lee Smith, was shot andkilled by Officer Turney and his colleague. Smith was a teenager with hearingdisability. At the scene when he was approaching the officers, he was asked todrop the gun in his hand and stop. he didn’t listen to the instruction and bothofficers pulled the trigger. The fact is that Turney did what the vast majorityof his colleagues might have done in the same situation. (Carrol, 2003)The officers were not punished for shooting Smith. Such case can be viewed as aprecedent and since Turney was not charged or convicted, the same decisionshould stand. If thepublic want to prevent similar tragedies from happening again, they should pushthe relevant laws and rules passed. However, according to the prospectivenature of law, Turney should not get punished even those laws were passedlater. Also, Turney was not the only police officer who fired the gun. Twoofficers opened fire. Turney's was the fatal shot. Paul Childs' death wasTurney's second fatal shooting. (Ensslin et al, 2003). As I looked through allthe articles attacking Officer Turney, I didn’t see any discussion about theother officer who also pulled the trigger. It seemed that the public wasfurious about the fact that the police officer killed the teenager, not thefact that the police officer shot the teenager and I don’t think it is right. Iffiring is the choice that most of the officers will choose, then why onlyTurney was punished? If nobody besides Turney was punished, then why shouldTurney be punished? He just got the bad luck since his bullet was the one thatkilled the teenager.
Among vastarticles attacking Officer Turney and his decision, I saw a prevailing argumentsaying that Turney could choose a better option and not necessarily have tokill Paul Child: “…He apparently didn't understand. He held the knife with thetip pointing up…. Turney should've backed up. What was the worst thing thatcould've happened: That Paul might have stabbed himself? No one else was in thehouse.” (Rodriguez, 2003)"The developmentally disabled need more time to process information and to decide how to respond," she said. Childs may have been utterly confused by the situation and, given a moment, might have cooperated fully. (Carman, 2003)Apparently,Paul Child didn’t understand the instruction because he was experiencing certain mental problem at that time. Confronting a person with a mental problem requires the police take extra caution since he or she may not be able to reason properly. At that distance, Paul Child can easily strike and stab, not himself, but the police officers. In fact, even if Turney didn’t shoot him and backed up, then what? Letting a mentally disabled teenager going around with a knife? I believe nobody would think that was a good idea.
Another argument stated that Turney was supposed to take the risk since he was a police and in fact the risk faced by police is not as high as people think. Studies on occupational danger show that the risks of on-the-job death faced by police officers are comparable to those faced by electricians. (Rosga, 2003) and The nature of police work involves managing situations where persons make sudden or unexpected body movements … police view shooting first as self-defense.However, this is specific to certain territories and categories of people, andif the person encountered does not fit a stereotype connoting danger, officers may hesitate to shoot. (Rosga, 2003) I partially agree with the idea here:police are trained to handle risk and should take caution when they are facing certain categories of people. When confronting Paul Child, Turney chose the most secure and conservative option. Maybe he was scared or being selfish since he did not want to take more risk and subdue Paul Child empty handed.However, we never know what he was thinking at that time. however, the one thing we all know is that he was totally following the rule and doing his job, and I think that is enough for him to keep his badge.
The idea of the rule of the law teaches us that the law should be above everything, and should be absolutely independent. In such case, although the public opinion was strongly demanding strict punishment for Officer Turney, I still expect the judicial system can remain immune from the influence. If a person is violating no rule nor laws, then he or she should remain innocent.
The other major argument was not blaming Turney or trying to get him disciplined. The idea is that the Police department had some serious problem and major changes should be made to the whole system. Catherine Clayton, executive director of the Epilepsy Foundation of Colorado, said better training might have shown police that it didn't have to go that way. (Spencer, 2003) I totally agree with such opinion. The police department should put more effort in teaching police force how to react to different situation.
Thistragedy is a consequence of many different problems in, not only the policedepartment, but also the whole society. Denver PD should set more clear rulesabout how police force should behave at the scene and how dispatcher shouldcollect information when receiving a call. The society should also rethinkabout how they treat the mentally disabled people. Clearly this is a troubledhome, a troubled group of people. No one lives in a vacuum; neighbors knowwhat's happening next door. So where was the community? Why didn't they insertthemselves to help this family find its feet and to help the mentallychallenged child? (kamau, 2003)I agree that the wholetragedy is totally avoidable, if Turney had a taser with him, or if theofficers with taser could have a better view at the target. However, thatdoesn’t mean Turney should be punished.After all,itis inappropriate to put all the blame on the person who finally pull thetrigger when the whole system is failed.
Reference
Kolts,J. (2003, July 14th)Don’t rush to judge police.Denver Post.Retrieved fromhttps://la.utexas.edu/users/jmciver/357L/P5/DP_Don't%20rush%20to%20judge%20police_071403.htm
Kelly,S. (2003, October 17th)Brief,
fatal confrontation: 'He was gonna stab me'. Denver Post. Retrieved from:
Lindsay,S (2003, October 17th) No charges in killing. Shooting of black teena 'terrible tragedy' but not a crime, DA says. Rocky Mountain News. Retrievedfromhttps://la.utexas.edu/users/jmciver/357L/P5/RMN_No%20charges%20in%20killing_101703.htm
Carrol,V (2003, July 12th) Rush to judgment in Childs case is reckless.Rocky Mountain News. Retrieved from:
https://la.utexas.edu/users/jmciver/357L/P5/RMN_Rush%20to%20judgment%20is%20reckless_071203.htm
Johnson,W (2003, October 17th) Johnson: A gut-wrenching, but correctdecision. Rocky Mountain News. Retrieved from:
McQueen,M (2003, July 6th)Teen with
knife killed by cops.Family says mentally disabled youth posed nothreat.Teen with knife killed by cops.Retrieved from:
https://la.utexas.edu/users/jmciver/357L/P5/DP_Teen%20with%20knife%20killed%20by%20cops_070603.htm
Rodriguez,C (2003, October 20th)Cityyearns for justice in cop shootings. Denver Post. Retrieved from:
Spencer, J (2003, July 8th) Teen's deathshows police not prepared. Denver Post. Retrieved from:
Kamau, P (2003, July 17th) Message tocommunity: Fix thyself. Denver Post. Retrieved from:
https://la.utexas.edu/users/jmciver/357L/P5/DP_Fix%20thyself_071703.htm
Rosga, A (2003, August 10th) Is the job'sdanger a self-fulfilled prophecy? Denver Post. Retrieved from:
Carman, D (2003, July 9th) Cops' excuses have fatal shortcoming, Denver Post.Retrieved from:
Ensslin, J; Gutierrez, H
(2003, July 8th) slain teen 'loved' cops; Sister tried to tell authorities that
her brother was disabled. Rocky Mountain News. Retrieved from:https://la.utexas.edu/users/jmciver/357L/P5/RMN_Slain%20teen%20loved%20cops_070803.htm
不知道这次作业为什么只得了B+，郁闷。。。
