ER - 4/21/2006 Patience, kindness would have worked in police shooting

Patience, kindness would have worked in police shooting

Dear Editor,

The tragic shooting death of a mentally ill woman in Eureka recently was unnecessary, and a clear-cut example of the kind of mentality and training this country uses for interventions.

Cheri Moore was obviously distressed, and it sounds like patience and kindness would have worked, to calm her down.

Instead, they always “assume” anything in the hand is a “weapon,” and they seem to use their SWAT teams entirely too much.

To put it mildly, they need to learn to watch some TV. There are many episodes on BBC Mystery Monday, where the police officers “talk” the mentally ill, stressed people into calming down.

This was definitely a terrible way to handle the situation, and if I could be at the vigil for Ms. Moore, I would.

Penny Lynn Dunn
Ironton, Mo.
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