Jim Austin

His previous columns are archived HERE.

JIM AUSTIN

Confidence in cops eroded

[Reporter's Note: Earlier this month in southern Vermont, the Brattleboro Police chased a man into a local church. The man was raving that the cops wanted to kill him. He produced a four-inch pocketknife and held it in front of his eye, threatening to kill himself. Three cops entered the church and two of them opened fire, hitting Robert Woodward seven times. The case remains under investigation.]

Back in the 70s, my friend and I took a trip to Acapulco, Mexico. We rented a Volkswagen and headed out of town to visit Tasco, a famous silver-producing city. On the outskirts of town there was a roadblock. Three scruffy-looking characters with automatic weapons ordered us out of the car and began to search it.

Needless to say, I was more than a little uneasy. It turned out that they were the cops looking for drugs and we were allowed to go on our way.

Fast forward to 2001.

Ruth, Shorty, and I attended the BUHS basketball game with St. Johnsbury recently. Two uniformed cops were standing outside the gym, watching people as they filed in.

I won't say I felt nearly as uneasy as I did 30 years ago in Mexico but something was different. Maybe what I felt was the absence of the secure feeling that I used to get when police officers are present.

Before, when I saw them, I knew that any potential violence or unruly behavior would be handled professionally. This mildly queasy reaction really surprised me.

If a former police officer like me, who has always been police-friendly, has lost confidence in our officers how must everyone else feel??

I understand that there are procedures to be followed in the wake of a police shooting. This has not stopped eyewitnesses, who knew neither the police nor Mr. Woodward, from coming forward with their stories.

These people have no obvious axe to grind. They were citizens in church, not inmates in a maximum-security prison. I am presuming that their descriptions were accurate. If that is so then we have a big problem.

The only statement we have heard from the Chief of Police has him saying that -- from what he knew --proper procedures were followed.

If we hold in abeyance the shooting itself for a moment, perhaps a police spokesman can explain the procedure that instructs officers to withhold medical attention from a suspect who is handcuffed and bleeding profusely. A doctor was standing by offering to assist this dying man and the cops, who have disarmed, searched and cuffed the victim said, "no."

That doesn't sound like a procedure to me. It sounds like reckless disregard for the life of Robert Woodward.

The inquiry may be able to explain away the shooting, but I don't know how they will explain to me or you how three armed cops were able to stand by while Robert Woodward's life drained away on the floor of that church while they prevented a doctor from coming to his aid.

I had been holding my pen at bay during the Woodward controversy. Nothing makes a writer look stupider than firing off opinions and conclusions based on inadequate facts. I know, I've done it before. We should all reserve judgment of these police officers until they are allowed to present their side of the story.

One fact that needs no inquiry is my current lack of confidence in our police department. The confidence I always felt in their honesty and fairness has been replaced by a very visceral feeling of uneasiness in their presence.

Plenty of ink has been given to both sides of this controversy. One group expresses confidence in our police. They know them to be stalwart, experienced professionals. The other group is outraged and expresses the view that the police acted recklessly and fired their weapons without sufficient provocation.

The opinions of either of these two groups are worthless. They were not there they don't know the facts.

My concern is with the people who were present. Those who actually witnessed the event have written a very damning view of this killing. They are the only ones I am listening to at the moment.

"Healing" is a word that has been used in the wake of this tragedy. I agree that we need to heal this rift between the community and the police. Wounds heal but scars remain. I don't know if I'll ever look at a Brattleboro cop the same way.