LAPD Shooting of Homeless Woman

* Re “Woman’s Shooting Is Probed,” May 23: Why is it that the much-celebrated L.A. Police Department cannot teach its young officers how to determine the level of force in confrontational situations? If they can’t accomplish that small detail, how about if they teach those officers what weapons in the hands of others can do?

Two physically fit LAPD police officers, one 29 and the other 27, are trying to tell the world that in broad daylight, on a public street, in a confrontation over a shopping cart, a 54-year-old homeless woman with a screwdriver scared them. Is it true that LAPD no longer attempts to measure an officer’s level of courage before putting him or her on the street?

PAUL KING

Long Beach

*

Once again the liberals try to bring further division in this country. Earl Hutchinson totally plays into spotlighting himself when he says that the police shot this woman over a shopping cart (May 24). No, Mr. Hutchinson, it was over being attacked by a screwdriver (that could kill). True, the initial stop did not involve a major crime but attacking a uniformed police officer is. Why have I never heard Hutchinson defending police officers who were killed for stopping someone for a traffic violation--no major crime, right?

KARI MENDOZA

San Pedro

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The senseless act of bicycle patrol officers Edward Larrigan, a five-year department veteran, and Kathy Clark, a three-year veteran, in shooting to death a homeless woman demonstrates the overly aggressive mentality of the LAPD. The idea that community policing via bicycle patrols would involve the harassing and ultimately shooting of a homeless woman over a shopping cart leaves many questions unanswered: the training of these officers in de-escalating a perceived threat; sensitivity to the homeless population; and, if this woman had symptoms of mental illness, why the LAPD’s SMART team was not called. This team is nationally known for its expertise in this kind of situation.

As homeless advocates on Skid Row, we all see every Monday the “shopping cart” police confiscate carts, write tickets and forcefully remove and dump the belongings into the city sanitation vehicles. Why have we become so barbaric and intolerant that the most vulnerable, the homeless and mentally ill, are being targeted this way?

GERALD MINSK

LAMP Community Mental

Health Advocate, Los Angeles