Rubbing Salt in a City’s Wounds

Even in the worst days of racial segregation in the South, when some sheriffs and police officers were involved in the shooting deaths of blacks, no Southern mayor, city official or police official would have rewarded those officers with an award and shelled out cash to them. But city officials in Claremont have done that to two of their police officers.

At a Christmas party in December, the two officers who shot and killed 18-year-old black motorist Irvin Landrum Jr. were named employees of the year by the city manager with the approval of the mayor and other city officials; checks of $1,000 were doled out to each.

Claremont police apparently felt the city award wasn’t enough and quickly followed it up by designating the two as “officers of the year.” Claremont city and police officials say that Haney Hanna and Kent Jacks deserved the honors because of their courage under fire.

The officers maintain that they shot Landrum after he opened fire on them following a routine traffic stop. A sheriff’s investigation found that the gun Landrum allegedly used was never fired, bore no fingerprints and was last owned by a police chief in a neighboring town.The case is currently under federal investigation. While Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti has found no evidence that the officers were guilty of any wrongdoing in the Landrum shooting, Claremont city and police officials should still ask themselves these troubling questions about the propriety of their awards to the officers: Were they given because officials sincerely believed that the officers deserved them, or was this their way of thumbing their noses at the hundreds who have protested the Landrum shooting? Do city officials honestly feel that police officers who use deadly force should be rewarded when clouds of doubt hang ominously over the shooting? Did they consider the effect the awards would have in a city that is already in deep turmoil over the shooting? Will these awards tempt officials in other cities wracked by controversy over police violence to follow this example and hand out awards to officers involved questionable shootings?

By alienating the many residents in Claremont who were angered and disturbed by the Landrum shooting, did city officials brazenly abrogate their duty to do everything in their power to preserve and ensure racial peace and harmony in their city? And finally, don’t city officials also have an obligation to show some sensitivity toward the Landrum family? After all, the shooting by any standard is a tragedy, and a life was lost. One would think that with the furor police shootings have caused in countless cities, including Los Angeles, the last thing that any responsible city official would want is to stir up even more furor. Yet that’s exactly what Claremont city officials have done by handing out these awards to the two officers who shot Landrum.