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Thursday, June 7, 2007
News Cop Shooting: Mayor Involved in “Legalistic Wrangling”
Posted by on Thu, Jun 7 at 10:35 AM
Copwatch accuses Mayor Tom Potter of “legalistic wrangling, more interested in defending the City from probable litigation than creating accountability” in the decision to fire Police Lieutenant Jeffrey Kaer for the shooting of Dennis Young in January, 2006. Copwatch activist Dan Handelman supports the firing, but suggests that Potter is just trying to protect the city from being sued by writing in a letter to Kaer that “your decision to use deadly force is not at issue in this disciplinary process.”
Since Kaer’s life was arguably not in danger when he shot at Young, Handelman alleges that he may have violated the bureau’s use of deadly force policy. But instead, Kaer was fired for making “a series of poor decisions.” The difference is, it’s more difficult for the dead man’s family to sue over those.
Handelman is also asking why the mayor makes no mention of the fact that Kaer seems to have used his professional position in a personal dispute, in events leading up to the shooting. That’s against policy, too. Download a copy of the Copwatch letter by clicking here.
Comments
Make that way "too" much. Hate it when I do that
why would you tell your sister to not call 911 while you drove across town to get to her house, if you genuinely thought there was someone outside her house who was intent on hurting her? wouldn't your first reaction be to tell her to get off the phone with you and to call 911 immediately so that police could be there ASAP?
it sounds like kaer's problem is that he had watched too many die hard movies in the period before the shooting.
That's a little harsh, Lyle. The guy's just been fired. Let's focus on the City's letter, eh?
i don't think it's harsh, if you look at it like his decision ended up getting someone killed.
that's not even getting into things like the fact that he said he was in fear of gettin backed over, yet the gunshots were through the side door.
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Seems to me way to much city policy is affected by fear of lawsuits. It's not just the police, but all the bureaus and almost all activities. Anybody can sue anybody for anything nowdays. Let's get past this lawsuit phobia and do the right thing. There probably won't be any more or any less lawsuits.