BLAME RESTS SQUARELY ON RECKLESS JOE BINI

Drunken drivers get punished worse than was Joe Bini.

And they -- well, many of them -- don't kill anyone. Those who do kill at
least go to the slammer. Not only does Reckless Joe get his job, gun, badge
and nine months of pay back; he also pretty much gets an apology from the boss.

To tally it up, the cost to Joe Bini for recklessly doing his job and
getting Ismael Mena killed totals three months' salary, 150 hours of
community service work and some court costs.

No, not a single day in jail or an hour or two in lockup. It's just:
"Here's your badge and gun, get back out there and don't do it again!" Now
I know why they keep lady justice blindfolded; it's so we can't see her weep.

And here's the topper: Turns out Ismael Mena's death in his own home at the
hands of SWAT officers wasn't Reckless Joe's fault at all!

It was the Police Department's fault. Manager of Safety Ari Zavaras said it
the other day.

The department, he said, is to blame for putting Bini in a situation he
wasn't properly trained to handle. Properly trained?

Wait a second.

He is a 32-year-old seasoned officer. He knows he is working with drug
informants -- not Rhodes scholars, who, incredibly, are trying to figure
out the address of the house where they bought dope by counting rooftops as
they roll through an alley on a bicycle.

It's a safe bet these gentlemen never attended university. What's certain
is they got the address wrong.

Does Reckless Joe bother even to check, to ask if they got the right
address? Maybe he didn't because he was out sick the day his academy
instructor lectured: "Before you summon a SWAT team carrying automatic
weapons to kick in a door and enter a home, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE PROPER
ADDRESS!"

Perhaps this was covered in an advanced training class for which Bini was
not yet eligible. Of course this is inane. It is Policing 101.

It is common sense.

It, too, is galling for the manager of safety to lay this tragedy at the
feet of improper training, and expect us to buy it.

"He was put in a position he shouldn't have been put in," Ari Zavaras said.
"And I won't make a scapegoat out of anyone."

No one asked that he should. What should be demanded, though, is
recognition and acknowledgment that any officer permitted to call in deadly
force ought to be able to get an address correct.

Joe Bini wasn't in over his head. Perhaps he wasn't the greatest narcotics
investigator. Maybe he wasn't well-versed in preparing search warrants. He
knew, or darn sure should have known, where the bad guys were.

An officer too lazy or reckless to ensure such a basic thing has no
business being in police work.

This is what frustrates, tears at the gut, through every step of this
tragedy. It is never anyone's fault.

Except Ismael Mena's. A cop in the paper the other day said it again: Well,
if he hadn't had a gun, he'd be alive today.

No, it's Joe Bini's fault. It is insulting enough the penalty for taking a
man's life is but three months of pay, a few classroom speeches and court
costs. It is a slap to the dead man's memory, his wife and nine children,
to place the blame elsewhere -- on policy, on the entire department, on --
please! -- "poor training."

No, it's all Joe Bini's fault. And only his.

What's sad is, you'd hardly know it.