Controversy Over Police Killing of Man Mistaken for Suspect

I fully expect such uninformed drivel from newspaper columnists with no background in law enforcement.

When a former policeman like Jackson writes an article, he owes it to the reading public to be objective.

Jackson used as the impetus for this article the tragic shooting of a Lennox area man during a robbery investigation.

While Jackson used up a lot of space questioning the motives and veracity of the investigators’ account of the shooting, not one sentence was used to question why the victim, Marcus Donel, did not comply with the deputy’s orders.

Jackson should know better than anyone that a felony car stop, like the one Mr. Donel was involved in, is not the time to question a deputy’s reason for stopping him or to be verbally abusive. An independent witness heard Donel engage in such activity. While this alone does not justify a shooting, this only serves to increase the anxiety level of the parties involved.

Could Donel have been inspired to such foolhardy actions as reaching for his waist area during a high-risk vehicle stop by Jackson’s well-chronicled exploits with Long Beach police? Then maybe Jackson needs to point his editorial pen in his own direction.

People do incredibly stupid things when confronted by superior numbers of armed police. This was shown during a recent encounter in Bellflower when a man, armed with only a BB gun, confronted deputies and narrowly escaped death in the shooting that followed.

Obviously, mistakes have been made during police encounters by officers’ perceptions. However, during these encounters there was a time when the incident could have ended in both the eventual victims’ and the officers’ favor. This is done by doing what you are told during a police encounter when you are told to do it.

There is plenty of time after the incident to file a personnel complaint or a lawsuit.

JOE HOLLAND

Whittier