Pubdate: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 Source: New Haven Register (CT) Copyright: 1999, New Haven Register Contact: http://www.ctcentral.com/cgi-bin/w3com/start?ctcentral+FrontPage Forum: http://www.ctcentral.com/ Author: Nicholas Pastore POLICE WILL FIND EXCUSE FOR LATEST DEADLY SHOOTING What's the system going to do about Victoria Cooper? They'll say she was a druggie. They're already pleased to say that about her boyfriend. They'll say something. They always do. Cops kill an unarmed civilian. Cops make up a story. We're now seeing it for the sixth time in just 12 months in Connecticut. What story will exonerate the North Branford officer who killed Cooper on Route 80 at 1:30 a.m. Monday? And more importantly - will the criminal-justice system's leaders yet again buy the story and let the cops off the hook? I'm thinking specifically of two people: New Haven State's Attorney Michael Dearington and Dr. Henry Lee, the state police chief. They both went to great lengths when an East Haven cop shot to death an unarmed civilian named Malik Jones. Lee trotted out his manikin for a re-enactment. Dearington performed an "exhaustive" investigation. And they bought the line that somehow a cop was justified in racing up to a car, blasting an unarmed person to death through the window from the side of the vehicle. They bought this theory that the car was moving in an unusual angle that posed a threat to the life of the officer - more of a threat to the officer's life than the backwards way we've been training our cops to handle tense situations. Cooper, like Jones, was not only unarmed, but without any drugs on her person, according to initial reports. So the cops are already talking about how she kept company with a druggie, just as they spoke about Jones' connection to the drug world. As if that can explain cops taking a life in these situations. So, if she were covered with drugs, would that have made her a legitimate target for execution? In this case, the cops talk about how Cooper's boyfriend had drugs in the car and ran away. So they had to shoot the girlfriend? Will Dearington and Lee buy it? Their reactions will send an important message. Gov. John Rowland, Waterbury's state's attorney, and the state legislature have taken serious steps to re-examine the violent and dehumanizing approach to policing demonstrated in the recent spate of police killings and publicized racial profiling. In just the past few weeks in Riverside, Calif., and Chicago,, cops lost their jobs for wrongly killing civilians, including a sleeping woman in a car. We cannot tolerate rogue policing - or deadly miscalculations by perhaps decent people who have no business wearing the badge - because we haven't trained them properly. Just review the national headlines for the past year or two. From Connecticut and New York to Chicago and California - and many points between - cops are out of control. Too many cops are shooting too many citizens without enough warning or apparent justification. And most of them are getting away with it. Lee can apparently tolerate it. Dearington apparently can. They're good men I've worked with in the past as a police chief. But I fought unsuccessfully to convince Dearington to seriously examine the conduct of cops who kill. Even now, in the wake of bloodshed, neither Dearington nor Lee sensed or communicated the urgent need for action. So in Greater New Haven, the cops are still getting the wrong message. This is an injustice to the business of policing. It's up to the system's leaders to shape the rules, the parameters of policing. You don't carry an attitude of: "You're not getting away from me. Take that!" You don't fight a war against people of color, or people you believe are involved with drugs. Nobody wins that war. Including the cops. Cooper and the other victims of police killings are dying because of officers' predisposition about suspects, whom they stereotype. They're killing as well because their police chiefs and state's attorney and statewide leaders like Lee aren't insisting that such actions are inexcusable. They're not pushing the idea of requiring every cop who shoots a gun while on duty should sit down with the chief and re-examine the event. What could the officer have done differently? Meaningful new, intensive training is key to avoiding some of this bloodshed. So is disciplinary action - firing cops who jeopardize civilians' lives. Both of these solutions must come from the top. Or are we going to explain away Victoria Cooper's death, too, as one more anomaly? Nicholas Pastore, a retired New Haven police chief, runs the Connecticut office of the Washington-based Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck