Police Shooting

* Re “Police Slaying of Woman Violated Policy, Panel Says,” Feb. 16: How can anyone take seriously Chief Bernard Parks’ willingness to confront lying and criminality in the Los Angeles Police Department when he continues to defend the indefensible shooting of Margaret Mitchell last May?

Two fully equipped police officers can’t handle a 5-foot-1, 102-pound woman in broad daylight without shooting her? The officers’ cover story insults the intelligence, and Parks insults all of us by continuing to stick to it. If leaders lead by example, Parks is showing by his stonewalling and distortions that the code of silence goes all the way to the top.

JONATHAN AURTHUR

Santa Monica

* Re “Shooting Broke LAPD’s Rules, Inspector Finds,” Feb. 12: Parks’ attempt to analyze the initial tactics used by the officer who killed Mitchell, separately from the ultimate decision to shoot, may seem like a distinction without a difference. Possibly, as the inspector general suggests, one did precipitate the other. But policing is an unpredictable enterprise, and there is simply no training that can override the fact that fallible humans play all the roles during each encounter.

As reasonable as it may seem to outsiders, judging actions primarily by their consequences invites officers to do nothing, as virtually any scenario that involves police intervention contains the seeds of tragedy. Perhaps we should adjust our expectations of the police and refrain from involving them in situations such as the one posed by Mitchell, where a forcible resolution seems clearly inappropriate.

JULIUS WACHTEL, Professor

Political Science and Criminal

Justice, Cal State Fullerton