The shooting of a child suffering a medical crisis by a Salt Lake City police officer is unacceptable. One does not need to see the body camera footage or read the official write-up of this incident to know this is unacceptable. Bullets should never be used to treat a child in crisis. I cannot believe it even needs to be said. If this is how the Salt Lake City Police Department has been training its officers to respond, then they all need to be decertified, disarmed and retrained immediately.
Chief Mike Brown bears the chief blame for this outcome. His training of his officers is insufficient for public safety emergency response. His officers are a menace to public safety. Why has Mayor Erin Mendenhall not fired him already? How many more brutalized innocent residents of Salt Lake City must we suffer under his watch before she says, “Enough”?
Michael Brown, Salt Lake City