Mike Lennartz, Delaware
Letter to the Editor
The Columbis Dispatch
I respond to the Saturday Dispatch article, “Police fatally shoot armed man.” There were many key lines in this story, all leading up to my conclusion.
As the story said, this has been an unusually combative month between Columbus police officers and people with guns. Officers react to suspects’ actions. They don’t get to pick the situations; they protect the public and themselves.
This particular shooting involved a man on a stolen bike with narcotics on him who jumped from the bike, ran from police and fired a gun at the officers. The officers feared for the safety of those around them and for their own safety.
A neighborhood woman was shown screaming on the television news, and her statement was included in this article: “Stop shooting our kids!” My response to her: Teach your kids not to aim a gun at or shoot at police officers.
Residents in the South Side neighborhood claim there is too much of a police presence. What about when they cried out that they didn’t see enough officers around?
The reporter talked to a man who calls himself “Brother Cecil” who belongs to a neighborhood group called Men 4 the Movement. He spoke of the “culture of death,” in which young men are “not afraid of dying because they don’t know how to live.”
Parents: Parent up! Teach your kids how to live — and not to point or shoot guns at police officers, or anyone else for that matter. Then maybe they won’t get shot.
I just read that this is not just a Columbus problem; Cincinnati has had four officer-involved shootings in August. A criminology professor was quoted in the Cincinnati Enquirer: “The members of the community need to tell their kids to stop pulling guns on cops. This should be shouted from the rooftops.”
Copyright 2011 The Columbus Dispatch