In the past three weeks, Mesa police shot and killed two people, in addition to shooting and injuring two others. While it may be in a town like Mesa, that's quite a bit of gun activity for that short of a time period. This spurt of violent activity may just be the product of selective media coverage, but both the violent activity and the public reactions are scary.
How exactly did all of this happen? In the first fatal shooting, police responded to a call where 15-year-old Mario Madrigal was drunk and threatening suicide with a knife. Arguing that the taser gun they used didn't stop Madrigal, police say the officers were forced to shoot him. Madrigal died from the gunshot wounds, and now the family is blaming police for overreacting and killing their son without cause. According to the Madrigal family's lawyer, the police found 15 shells from the officers' guns at the scene, 10 of which hit Madrigal. How can that be justified?
Police deserve the right to protect themselves if they feel threatened, but when you're a grown man wearing that uniform, how in the world can you feel so threatened by a drunken 15-year-old boy with a knife that you need to empty that many rounds of ammunition into him? If he's drunk and been jacked around with a taser for the last few minutes, you probably only need to shoot him in the foot one time and he'll fall over screaming for mercy. If the evidence of excessive force is true, then it is hard to see how the department could not punish the officers involved.
Since the incident, protesters have been showing up outside of the Mesa Police Department with small children who carry signs that say things like "Please Don't Shoot Me." That kind of behavior is unnecessary. The police department hasn't cleared the officers of any charges, so why are these people picketing? The department is conducting an investigation; if it comes back with a report that says the officers did nothing wrong, only then, it seems, would protesting be appropriate.
Two weeks later Mary Ann Minchew, 23, was shot and killed by Mesa police when neighbors reported that she was drunk and swinging a gun. When the police arrived, no gun was found, and why they felt the need to shoot her is beyond me. Minchew was listed to be 5 foot 7 inches tall and weighed 130 pounds. On top of her not being the biggest, most intimidating woman in the world, she was also mentally challenged and drunk. Where is the need for deadly force?
It seems that these officers' extensive training must have given them alternate means to subdue her without a gun. There is an investigation underway in this case as well. It would be a crime for the officer who shot her to not be punished in some way, shape or form.
But police aren't all bad guys, and we shouldn't paint them with a broad brush. Sure, they ruin a lot of fun parties and give you tickets when you're doing harmless things like dragging your friend behind your car on a toboggan, but that's their job. I'm not going to get all Sept. 11 "I love my heroes" on you, but not every cop out there is doing reckless things like the ones who killed Madrigal and Minchew. You can look at a related story from the Mesa police to see that.
The latest police-shooting incident out of Mesa on Sept. 10 provides a perfect example of how a dangerous situation was appropriately handled. A suspect fled from police and when they had cornered him, he pulled a gun on the officers. Instead of emptying their weapons into him, the officers involved shot the man once in the hip, non-fatally wounding him and ending the situation.
These officers were in a very dangerous position and handled it extremely well. I've never been to any kind of police academy, but I would assume that academy training teaches officers techniques to subdue suspects without killing them. The officers in this final case exhibited great composure by not sending a shower of bullets the suspect's way, but the incident doesn't capture above-the-fold headlines like the earlier killings did.
Police brutality is definitely something that needs to be checked; at the same time, the public must use fair judgment and act reasonably in the wake of this violence.
Chris Fanning is a journalism junior. Reach him at christopher.fanning@asu.edu.
