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November 29, 2006



 



 

Task Force Should Review Police Shooting
 

 

 

 

 

This latest incident of domestic violence on Sunday, January 7th shows that the recent incident where James Dean was shot dead by police in an incident in Hollywood which began on Christmas night, also began with a domestic dispute between Dean and his wife.  ST. MARY'S TODAY has learned that the unfortunate incident involved Dean holding a gun to his uncle's head and threatening to kill him; included Dean firing multiple times from inside at police officers yet the yahoos of St. Mary's County somehow feel that the police should have simply walked away, or just "winged" him when he was firing at them...'shoot the gun out of his hand'...someone has to tell these grieving folks who are justly upset at the loss of their loved one, that when people shoot at police they are going to be shot dead.  Police do not train to 'wing' people nor should they be trained that way.  Police cannot walk away from situations where those who have already threatened the lives of others are allowed to roam around drunk while armed and dangerous.  Dean would never have been sent to Iraq after this incident and an independent citizen review of the response to this disaster is called for, not simply leaving it in the hands of the police, who are going to come up with the conclusion that they acted appropriately.  They did.  But that is not enough.  Questions need to be asked: Did the police allow the family to talk to him on the phone?  Was the information given to Dean that the Army would never send him over after he has had a mental breakdown such as took place that night?  Did police do all they could with a man who was drunk and just out of sorts, firing wildly and not even being budged with tear gas but still firing bullets out of the house?  The officer who shot Dean was forced to do so, an outcome likely desired by Dean but the public has a right to know what procedures and training are in place to better manage such ordeals instead of simply sending three armored vehicles to the scene along with 30 cops. The States Attorney hand feeds information to the Grand Jury and they only see what he wants them to see.  The old saying that a Grand Jury would indict a ham sandwich also means that a Grand Jury will do nothing in the case of an injustice.  Therefore, this tainted and flawed procedure should not be viewed as a solution.   With President Bush ready to send tens of thousands of more Americans to Iraq without any coherent mission, expect more such crackups....But regardless of how people feel about this silly war or anything else, its a bad idea to get drunk, get armed and shoot at cops.  We have a right for our police officers to expect to come home from work without being killed....there aren't too many damn citizens of this state that are worth a cop dying for....The Domestic Violence Task Force could be expanded to review police responses to such incidents and this Dean suicide by cop death. 


 

 

 
 



   


 

 

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