[LETTERS TO THE EDITOR]Appropriate use of force

The photos of the police officer ‘saving’ a criminal suspect from the ‘armed’ woman in her fifties record a heartbreakingly awful scene.
At the very least, that policeman should be fired. The techniques for effectively restraining a person are certainly taught in any respectable training program.
And in that program, the officer could also have been reassured that umbrellas aren’t deadly weapons.
If the woman’s daughter was a murder victim, then her feelings toward the suspect are completely understandable.
And no, that does not mean she should be allowed to physically attack the man in any way that she can.
But any officer of the law who does not use appropriate restraining techniques against an unarmed person should be kicked off the force, and that would require nothing more than speaking to him.
Though I can think of one woman who might want the chance to kick him off literally, and I’d like to see those photos.

by K. Smith