Officers in Claremont Killing Win New Award

Two Claremont police officers who shot a black motorist to death in January were voted officers of the year by the Police Department last weekend--little more than a week after they were named city employees of the year by the city manager.

Officers Hany Hanna and Kent Jacks will each receive a plaque for the department’s highest honor, in addition to the $1,000 given for the city’s award.

Critics of the police action Monday called the awards a “slap in the face” to the motorist’s family.

Last January, both officers opened fire on Irvin Landrum Jr., 18, during a traffic stop. They said the young man pulled a .45-caliber gun from his waistband and fired at them as he was standing outside his car.

But Landrum’s family and supporters--prompted by discrepancies between the officers’ testimony to investigators and a sheriff’s report on the shooting--have claimed that he was unarmed, and have relentlessly protested the department’s subsequent public handling of the incident, including the decision to put the officers back on patrol duty, and its general treatment of minorities.

The controversy has grown steadily for almost a year, with local college students recently joining in weekly protests in front of City Hall. The U.S. Justice Department is still investigating the shooting, though the district attorney’s office has determined the officers are not criminally liable for their actions.

Police Chief Robert Moody said the department probably voted for Hanna and Jacks because they “continued to work in a professional way” despite the tremendous pressure put on them by the controversy.

“We know what these guys have gone through,” he said Monday.

Moody, who said he has been certain from the beginning that the officers committed no wrongdoing, added that the officers of the year are decided by a vote of department employees and no consideration was given to the potential publicity fallout.

“If any of these [protesters] make an issue of it, it’s their problem,” he said.

A leader of the protest actions assailed the new award Monday. “The city is so hardened in defending these officers they’ve actually gone on the offensive,” said Pitzer College professor Halford Fairchild. “It’s snubbing their thumbs at the Landrum family.”

But Fairchild and others have said the controversial honors serve the protesters’ purposes by raising ire and thus keeping the issue alive. Indeed, the number of protesters has grown at recent events.

“It’s absolutely positive for our movement,” said Fairchild, “because it shows the irrational actions being taken by Claremont, keeping this issue on the front burner.”