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Community Reacts to APD ShootingRelated Content
ANCHORAGE - Sunday’s deadly officer shooting of Harry Smith comes just days after Anchorage Police Officer Boaz Gionson was found justified in his use of deadly force against Shane Tasi. Even though both are police-involved shootings, the cases are very different, but not everyone in the community is making that distinction. While some people were not willing to talk about police involved shootings on camera, they had a lot to say off-camera. Specifically about the issue of how officers handle tough scenarios and how consistent they are each time. Asking the public to give a critique on the Anchorage Police wasn't an easy task, especially when most people we talked to didn't know many details of the department's latest deadly shootings. Then we asked people how they feel about the way police handle shootings. That was met with a response that some say they don’t have a problem with, and others say more caution should be taken. The Polynesian Community Center says the Anchorage community should pay more attention to what's been happening. “What happened with Mr. Smith and Mr. Tasi is a complete tragedy,” said the group’s executive director, Miriama Aumavae. “This pretty much can happen to anybody and it has been happening in the community and in other states.” The group of young Polynesian professionals is organizing what's being called a peaceful demonstration on Saturday to voice concerns over police protocol. “If you’re going to be quick enough to clear your name, be quick enough to provide the Polynesian community and minorities and everyone in the Anchorage community with a prevention plan,” said Aumavae, who is asking for law enforcement to create strategies to defuse dangerous situations to prevent any deaths. “If a plan was in place in that time, where there was a special team with negotiation skills, then probably Mr. Tasi would be alive today.” But police say they were just doing their job. “Our job is to stop people from doing things that hurt other people,” said Parker, who said their actions depend on the situation at hand. And sometimes that action calls for the use of deadly force. “We as officers can only react to our perceptions of threat and when we perceive a threat we have to take some kind of action,” said Parker. But some community members are questioning the actions police use while and others say they first want to hear all the facts from all sides. The Office of Special Prosecutions and APD homicide detectives are investigating Sunday's shooting of Smith, and police are still waiting for the toxicology results from the Shane Tasi shooting. The Polynesian Community Center will hold its demonstration this Saturday at noon at the Far North Bicentennial Park off of Martin Luther King Drive. |
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Noname said on Friday, Aug 10 at 12:57 PM
There is no way to know the heart and mind of another individual. So I don't think you can actually claim your statement as fact.
98831005Anchorage Scanner on twitter said on Wednesday, Jul 4 at 4:29 PM
Very good reply Robin!
95470446Rose Winters said on Wednesday, Jul 4 at 11:49 AM
I think we should stop being in denial. Police officers are hired guns, and I don't mean to disparage the police. We expect them to protect us with guns. They are trained to react to percieved threats, and they are trained to react with the guns we hired them to use. Should we also expect them to assess situations more carefully, or choose to react in other ways? Like subduing an out-of-control individual with a BB gun and taking them to API? I think we're expecting too much of people we have hired specifically to use lethal force and trained to react without much thinking (because we are apparently unable to control ourselves and so there are reportedly a lot of dangerous people they have to protect us from). Maybe Harry Smith was one of them? My apologies to his son, I don't really believe that. I don't see what choice the son had, other than call the cops. I think the police might have made other choices, like what if the Smiths had lived on the Hillside? But we hired them.
95456336ABristow said on Wednesday, Jul 4 at 11:17 AM
We asked the police to come three times and take my son to API and each time they took him to jail...the first time the beat him up. The last time they promised my husband they would take him to API and guess what?They took him to jail. He was out in thirty minutes.
95454746GeorgeC said on Wednesday, Jul 4 at 8:21 AM
I wonder if these people would be "up in arms" if the APD officer had been injured or killed? You point a gun at a cop, you're going to get shot. He doesn't have the time to say "hey wait is that a BB gun?" Same for going after a cop with a stick/club/etc. You drop the weapon as told or face the consequences. This isn't TV with trick shots by officers or martial arts trained officer.
95444771Smarter said on Tuesday, Jul 3 at 8:06 PM
We need smarter criminals. Getting shot while holding a bb gun and stick, come on dirt bags get your act together. If you are going to give APD a free shot make it worth your life.
95413635Robin Scheff said on Tuesday, Jul 3 at 8:48 AM
I know for a fact that not ONE of our police officers want to ever kill another human being, ever. They didn't join the police for to kill people, but they don't have the proper gear or training, in my opinion, to use non-lethal methods of knocking an armed person out, to the ground, out. We have the technology in this country to knock someone down with sound waves, electric static shock, and other methods that are VERY effective, but the departments have to buy them, buy the training for their proper use, and then USE them. Those police officers who have killed these two Anchorage citizens I am sure are personally devastated. They will pull themselves together and continue to do their jobs, but killing another person is never never easy to handle in the head. We must embrace these other available technologies that allow police to deal with deadly situations with armed citizens.
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