Death of 2 in Crash With Police Car

I followed with great concern the death of the two young women by the speeding Westminster police car.

The fact of the matter is that our police are killing innocent people under the mask of serving our communities.

Police Chief James Cook’s explanation that “the officer was responding to an emergency that allows police to travel at high speed with lights flashing and the siren on” is at best a whitewash of the reckless destruction of two young lives.

Being a father of two young women and two young boys, I felt a sincere hurt for the family of the two young women. I was so moved by the story I made a personal visit to the accident scene. As a former law enforcement officer, it was not difficult to reconstruct the accident. The skid marks seem to reveal that the police officer did not hit his brakes until after the impact.

What we have in these tragic deaths is a classic example of the John Wayne syndrome in law enforcement of getting to the emergency at any cost.

The Vehicle Code allows emergency vehicles to respond to emergencies in a manner exempting them from normal rules of the road, but it doesn’t relieve the driver of an authorized emergency vehicle from the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons and property.

Police administrators and legislators must evaluate the cost of the seemingly reckless disregard for safety when operating an emergency vehicle Code 3. The goal of an emergency response is to get to the location where help is required. When we evaluate this accident, was the request for assistance and the arrest of a subject for child abuse and resisting arrest any justification for the senseless waste of two young women’s lives?

ROBERT FELICIANO

Downey