INTOXICATION PROVOKES DEADLY CONFRONTATIONS

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

The death of an intoxicated man in Cincinnati following his violent arrest
triggers the normal retrospection by a concerned citizenry. We try to
analyze for ourselves whether the police officers were ruthless brutes,
whether they just made grave mistakes, or whether the officers performed
their job as best as they could and the sad outcome was unavoidable.

More positively, many of us think of ways that such a situation will not
occur here in our community. A reliable start is to grasp hold of an
inevitable reality of both science and life in general - that for every
action there is a reaction. It is certainly gripping that a naturally
jovial, gentle person behaves totally differently while stoned on vile
chemicals, or simply allows his mood to supersede self-discipline just for
a few moments and is handed an unexpected death sentence as a result.
Compelling, yes, but still an attack is taking place.

An elementary part of a police officer's function is not to allow himself
to be attacked; it's difficult to protect the citizenry while suffering
physical trauma (not to mention the obvious human aspect of enduring
abuse). Preventive measures against such furious episodes are simple to
view on paper, yet are forever worthwhile to read.

Any citizen will avoid unwelcome responses such as the one described by not
attempting to use police officers, or anyone whatsoever, as punching bags.
To forestall any likelihood of behaving in such a manner, try not consuming
hallucinatory and dangerous chemicals to begin with.

Lawrence David Lanberg, Richmond