SORTING OUT THE FACTS IN POLICE SHOOTING

Here are the facts in the Jack in the Box police shooting: Earl Murray and
Ronald Beasley were not innocent victims of a police shooting.

Murray was a known drug dealer poisoning his neighborhood with his vile
product. Beasley had heroin in his system at the time of the shooting, and
obviously had knowledge of and condoned the type of illegal activity Murray
was involved in.

Police officers are daily placed in highly stressful, intense and rapidly
unfolding situations where they have to make split-second decisions. They
are human beings not computers or robots. Perhaps additional training or
planning is merited as a result of the Jack in the Box incident. But no
prosecution is warranted.

This would only serve as an attempt on the part of weak-kneed hand-wringers
on the left who seek scapegoats to punish for the sins committed by Murray
and Beasley that brought them to the Jack on the Box that day.

D.W. Wilber

St. Charles

The May 5 article on the Jack in the Box shooting was an excellent example
of investigative journalism. The Post-Dispatch is to be commended for its
dogged determination to cover this and other incidents of alleged police
misconduct.

Of note, no mention was made of the panel appointed by the County Council
to investigate this and other police shootings. This omission highlights
the point that the county panel has made itself irrelevant by its lack of
determination to root out the facts.

For example, panel members declined an offer to read transcripts of the
grand jury tapes. Nor did they interview a single witness, civilian or
police, to the events in question.

County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch continues to condemn himself with his
own words. He is quoted as saying that "what the witnesses saw or didn't
see isn't the issue anyway. What is import ... is that the two shooters
believed that their lives were in danger."

No impartial prosecutor would ignore the facts of a case in determining the
accuracy of a potential defendant's self-justifying statements. McCulloch
should recuse himself and allow the attorney general to pursue the matter.

The city of St. Louis will soon pass legislation to establish a civilian
oversight board that will impartially investigate controversial police
actions. St. Louis County should take a hard look at this legislation and
pass the same measures for its constituents.

John and Susie Chasnoff

University City