[HPN] San Diego POLICE BRUTALITY DEMONSTRATION of Feb 10 - StreetLight FWD FWD

[Tom Boland]

FWD - San Deigo, California, USA
CC REPLIES TO: Ron Sills <Jusprobono@aol.com>
               [of San Deigo Street Light homeless newspaper]

Friday 2-10-2000

POLICE BRUTALITY DEMONSTRATION

At noon on the steps of the Superior Courthouse a diverse crowd gathered to
mourn the recent shooting of William Anthony Miller, a 42 year old homeless
man gunned down by San Diego Police Officers in the Midway area on Tuesday.
Among those standing next to me was Sagon Penn who has special knowledge
regarding the brutality of some San Diego Police Officers, he has been the
target of it before. Martial Artists as a group abhor senseless violence when
a more controlled peaceful path could have been taken. Penn told a reporter
he would rather teach them the take down so they would not have to gun down.

    Miller was armed with what amounts to a palm frond, presumably without
professional training in its use. The officers at the scene had all been
issued nightsticks or tonfas and been professionally trained in its use.
If they had pulled out their sticks in a measured response to his level of
threat, he of course would have been outnumbered and probably would have
ended up in the emergency room to be treated for some broken bones. At
that point due process perhaps would have seen him prosecuted for
assaulting the bike rider with the palm branch and perhaps ordered by the
court into treatment as a condition of probation or parole.

    I am a vet and like Mr. Penn a martial artist, I can do more with two
pencils than write. It was a B.F.O. (Blinding Flash of the Obvious) to us
and to all the others assembled on the courthouse steps that the present
policy of the police is flawed. The penchant of some officers to go from
initial response to deadly force has to be controlled and consequences in
place for jumping directly to deadly force as a response.

    I cannot help but wonder how a British Bobby would have handled this
situation.

Ron "Doc" Sills
StreetLight
4138 Fairmount Avenue
San Diego, CA 92105
619-528-0407
619-528-0409 fax
jusprobono@aol.com
drydoc@justice.com

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