COPS: Good, bad and, well, you know

The Good: A short while ago, I was involved in a domestic dispute. It was 2 a.m., and alcohol was involved. I dialed 911, and within minutes the police arrived. I was hyper but the officer calmed me, and then asked me the happenstance. I explained to him what happened. He then explained to me my rights, and responsibilities. He was polite, well informed and reassuring. He was the poster child for what a good police officer should be. When he left, I felt safe.

The Bad: A rogue Coeur d’Alene police officer (acting without back-up) shoots a suicidal, non-threatening man, five times in the chest, for not obeying the order to “Drop the knife.” Half our community felt that the killing was justified; the other half thought that it was excessive. I’m in that camp. Cover up ordered from Boundary County, and was accepted.

The Ugly: Officer Kelley shoots and kills a man’s pet dog. Fellow officers try to cover it up by taking pet dog away and lying, as to breed, and that the dog was threatening, even though the dog was a Lab and was shot through the window, which was only open half way. My first reaction was anger, as I am a dog lover, then fear, as I take my dog with me everywhere, and I realized that she was no longer safe in my van. Next was that this enclosed van could have had a child in the back, and if that child had come into the front seat, as officer Kelley fired, this tragedy could have been much worse. I don’t wish to have this officer fired, just disarmed. There are jobs that he can do within the department which do not require him to carry a firearm.

Our neighbor to the west has one of the most corrupt police forces in the United States, because after 80+ charges of police brutality, all were covered up, save one. Officer Thompson’s murder of Otto Zehm. The perjuries there extended, all the way to the assistant Chief of Police, and were it not for a S.R. reporter (Doug Clark) who refused to let this cover up stand, bringing in the feds, this cover-up would have been upheld. Spokane is a city so afraid of its police department that all efforts to implement some civilian review board have failed. Spokane’s police department’s 80+ cover-ups started with just one. Even those Coeur d’Alene people who felt the shooting of the man who refused to obey, would not approve of the cover-up.

We now have a new police chief who has a difficult choice: Ingratiate himself with his department or serve the community that hired him. in the “Arfee” case, he has yet to act. I predict that he will not disarm officer Kelley, as that would be an admission of wrongdoing, and remember that the purpose of a cover-up is not to just protect the officer involved in the incident, it’s to protect the department as a whole and, after time, our city will forget. I have heard people say, “It’s past, so get over it.” I want our police department to be staffed by the kind of officers I started this letter with. I want to feel safe, feel that my dog is also.

TERRANCE WOLFERMAN

Coeur d’Alene