I watched it, transfixed, on the local news for almost an hour.
Police cars were following a car that was traveling about 50 mph on local streets. The driver of the car was going through red lights and driving somewhat erratically. At one point the car stopped. The police cars also stopped, with their guns drawn — behind the doors of their patrol car. After a few minutes, the car took off again.
At this point, almost everyone must have known what I knew. The car would end up stopping when it crashed into another car, or into another person, place or thing. Someone, either in a car or walking across the street, would be injured or killed. It was just this morbid curiosity that kept people glued to their TV sets and made this event a primetime one for the TV stations.
Then, shortly, an indelible image that lasted only a few seconds: The car approached an intersection — while another car headed toward the intersection from the right. Destruction! The innocent woman driver was hit broadside. Luckily, she survived with only “moderate” injuries.
What could the police have done differently to avoid this tragedy?
It seems that the police “held back” for some reason that only they and their superiors know.
What They Should Have Done
What seems clear to me is that the police could have taken certain actions to try to prevent the guilty driver from hurting others.
The police, knowing the apparent route of the driver, could have had a substantial (spell that “cinder block”) roadblock set up a distance away. At least, it seems to me, that such a roadblock would have, at least, made the driver slow down — if he at all cared about injuring himself badly. Once he slowed down or stopped at the roadblock, he could have been apprehended.
That driver was a loaded and cocked gun. It was pointed at Mr. or Mrs. Innocent. Almost any way (okay, perhaps not bombing the car) that the police could have stopped that lethal car would, it seems to me, be justified. If the police fear injuries to themselves as a consequence of ramming the car, then I say it’s time for police departments to use armored vehicles for just such forceful ramming actions.
Or, at the very least, have the police department’s chief come on the air at the time of the pursuit to explain why such “forceful” actions are not being used — and why he believes risking the lives of others is worth just FOLLOWING the suspect’s car.
Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at robertebsen@hotmail.com
