Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 27, 1991 TAG: 9103270414
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Police everywhere, including in Roanoke, operate today under closer scrutiny in the wake of the California incident that sent shock waves around the nation. The videotape of the beating showed, with no room for doubt, that police brutality in fact takes place.
Still, there is cause for caution. If a video from the other side of the continent demonstrates the error of assuming that police officers never are racist or use excessive force, it gives no reason to assume that all officers are racist and use excessive force. Notwithstanding growing public skepticism, it would be wrong to judge the case of Leonard Morris on anything but its own merits.
Police say Morris was shot and killed in his home after he stabbed one officer and charged others. The Roanoke NAACP is calling for a federal investigation. But the questions raised thus far do not point definitely to excessive force or police racism.
For example, the NAACP asks why so many shots were fired. An autopsy found that Morris was shot up to nine times. The question is certainly legitimate. But police had reason to believe Morris was trying to kill them. With more than one officer firing, many shots in a dangerous or panicky situation could get off rather quickly.
Desmond Morris, the brother of the man who was slain, says his brother "had recently moved to a predominately white area, and as such would have been a likely target for the police." But police were at his house to question him because a woman found two blocks away had been assaulted and stabbed repeatedly. She gave Leonard Morris as the name of her assailant (and has since given police a positive identification).
This isn't to say Morris deserved to die. Unlike the videotaped Los Angeles victim, who was defenseless against police blows, Morris made an apparently unprovoked and potentially deadly attack. But his death wouldn't be justifiable if, at that moment, the officers believed he could be stopped with something short of multiple gunshots.
This is to suggest, rather, that no one should leap to conclusions or assume the worst about the police. Let the facts come in. Why jump the gun?
It's one thing for Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates to say he would need to study events leading up to the beating before drawing a conclusion: No evidence could alter the videotaped fact that excessive force was used.
It is quite another thing for Roanoke Police Chief David Hooper to say: "This is not a condemnation of raising questions, but in order to fully understand [the shooting], you have to know all the facts." Inasmuch as a videotape of what happened in Morris' home is lacking, evidence and testimony indeed must be gathered.
Hooper says preliminary reports suggest the shooting was justified, but he appropriately is withholding any final conclusions until the internal investigation is completed. On the other hand, he also says he has "no reservations at all about having a competent third-party agency reviewing the facts." That's a strong and shrewd response - an FBI investigation couldn't hurt.
Meanwhile, one fact seems amply clear: A gulf of suspicion and misunderstanding has grown up between the nearly all-white Roanoke police force and some members of the black community. This divide can only hurt police work that depends on citizens' trust and cooperation. And it, more than the facts of the Morris case, may have prompted the call for a federal probe.
If community relations were what they should be, one wonders whether black leaders would have seen fit to question the use of force by police against a sexual-assault suspect attacking officers with a knife.
by CNB