Taking a life not in the line of duty not like TV

5:07 PM Saturday, January 30, 2010

If you’ve been watching TV this century or the last, you probably saw a hero cop kill a bad guy.

If you watched the same cop show every week, you probably noticed that the cop offed a bad guy about once a week.

Killing assorted bad guys is an American fantasy.

In real life, killing isn’t the make-my-day thrill purveyors of handguns might want you to think it is.

Case in point is Tom Stafford’s story today about Roger Marcum.

Marcum, a former Springfield police officer, agreed to talk about his experience of having to shoot someone to death in the line of duty in 1981.

He acted to save his own life when a large man came at him with a knife.

Taking a life is not something to be taken lightly.

Today’s story about Marcum shows that. The man he shot to death was drunk and his wife had left him. But Riccardo Hargrow was not an evil man. His coworkers were surprised at his actions that day.

Marcum, now retired, still keeps a handgun near him, but he considers it a tool of the trade. And he would like to have been one of the policemen who never had to unholster his weapon in the line of duty.

More recently, two Springfield officers confronted a man wielding a knife. One officer shot and killed the man.

A grand jury this past week found they had done nothing wrong. An internal police review of the incident is still underway. Some in the community have questioned whether something short of deadly force could have been used.

Tasers are touted by some as a non-lethal tool that could replace a gun. Some Springfield police carry Tasers and more have been purchased. Tasers have their own problems. More than 350 deaths have been reported from their use over the last 10 years. And Tasers can’t always be counted on to stop a suspect.

The fact is that there is no way a police officer can react perfectly in every situation. Good training is the best safeguard.

Every fatal shooting by a police officer needs to be investigated thoroughly.

But we should keep in mind that officers are also victims of these events.

We ask a lot of police officers, requiring them to make life and death decisions, often under the most difficult circumstances.

While we must hold them accountable, we should be aware of the toll this responsibility takes on them.

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