What Not to Do

Last week's shooting of an Afghanistan veteran by a sheriff's deputy in St Mary's County, Maryland looks now like a complete clusterfuck by the authorities. James Dean, who had previously displayed symptons of PTSD after completing his active duty, became despondent and suicidal upon receiving orders recalling him for deployment to Iraq. After Dean barricaded himself in a house and threatened suicide, the sheriff forced him out with tear gas and shot him when he emerged pointing his weapon at officers.

Now Dean's family is asking hard questions.

If the officers' priority was to get Dean out safely, the family wanted to know, why were the people he trusted not allowed to talk to him? Why was his cellphone service cut off when he was trying to call his grandmother's house? Why were they pushing him closer to the edge by pumping noxious gas into the house and breaking the windows?

"We told them, 'We're his family; we know how to calm him down,' " said Dean's grandmother, Mary, who for her safety was removed from her house adjacent to the one where her grandson held dozens of officers at bay. "I'm telling them if he just hears my voice he'll come down from it, and they're telling me to keep quiet or they'll lock me up for obstruction of justice."

Let's see. Suicidal, stressed combat veteran. Alone in a farm house with a rifle, threatening himself and deputies outfitted for battle. His distraught family asking to talk him down. Why not give them a chance?

...officers couldn't establish a line of communication long enough to consider having anybody talk to Dean, which is why they resorted to gas to get him to leave the house. When the young man opened the door with his gun raised, Cameron said, the trooper believed his colleague's life to be in imminent danger -- giving him the cue he needed to shoot to kill. (emphasis added)

Just doing the drill, ma'am. Just doing the drill. Sorry about your kid. He would have shot you, ma'am. We couldn't risk it. Yeah, right.

Tell you what, when I entrust others to use lethal force on behalf of public safety, I want them to be able to think as well. About the only justification the sheriff can offer is that what the officers did is standard procedure for many police organizations. That's frightning because it means there will be many more James Deans.

Get a clue, guys. Learn to think and act.