While I sympathize with the relatives of the victims of shootings, it’s more than a little difficult to get behind the actions of the people who held a demonstration at Ramsey County Attorney Mike Freeman’s house, angrily demanding the officers who shot and killed Brian Quinones last September should be put on trial and convicted of murder. Never mind the incongruity of demanding a jury come to a particular conclusion; the simple matter of the evidence made available to the public so far doesn’t make their demands compelling. From MPR:
In a statement, [Freeman] noted that the incident was tragic, but said Quinones threatened several officers with a knife and refused their orders to drop the weapon. Freeman said the officers’ use of deadly force was “necessary, proportional, and objectively reasonable” under Minnesota law.
Quinones’ family members feared the 30-year-old husband and father had been feeling suicidal, and have questioned why police couldn’t subdue him without resorting to lethal force.
Just after 10 p.m. on Sept. 7, Quinones was driving erratically along Normandale Frontage Road near 77th Street, when Edina police officer Nicholas Pedersen tried to pull him over.
As he sped along the street with his music turned up, Quinones held his phone in his hand and livestreamed video on Facebook. Pedersen followed and recorded video simultaneously on his squad car’s dash camera.
Quinones refused to pull over, but eventually stopped after the pursuit entered Richfield. Pedersen got out of his squad, drew his gun and shouted, “He’s got a knife! Drop it. Drop the knife! Get on the ground!”
The question of when a policeman should and should not defend themselves with deadly force is certainly one that should be debated hotly, and perhaps adjusted from current understandings. Whether or not that would have helped with the infamous killing in our community of Philando Castile is a question that can never be answered, and is complicated by allegations that former Officer Yanez was not qualified for his position due to anxiety issues; I do not know if anyone followed up on them.
Edina Police dashcam video shot.
Hennepin County Attorney’s Office
But in the Quinones case, the videos that have been broadcast suggest that he was looking for an ending of suicide by cop, and forced them to it. He is clearly and repeatedly warned. And I have little confidence that, beyond a Taser, which didn’t work in this case, there’s much to be done to merely disable him; human beings can collapse at a flea bite, or tip over cars – predictability of a human under stress is a mug’s bet.
What I fear is that unreasonable demands will contaminate the greater case for policing reform, for deciding if profiling is systemic or isolated, and that will delay necessary reformations.
