Maybe Get a Clue, Eh?

The immediate reaction to reading about three Lethbridge, Alberta police officers knocking a woman in a Star Wars stormtrooper costume to her face on the ground is to realize they have all played goalie without wearing a helmet. But that would stop too early.

Since yesterday was May 4, the Coco Valley Galactic Cantina asked a female employee to wear the costume, which includes a plastic "blaster" replica. According to another item, the Lethbridge Police Service received more than one 911 call about a firearms complaint at the restaurant, meaning there are several residents of Lethbridge so minimally sentient that they can't tell the difference between a movie prop and a real gun. Or it's possible the police officer who claims that there were calls is not telling the truth; we'll see why that may be possible in a moment.

Three LPS officers responded, guns drawn, and ordered the woman to drop her fake gun and get on the ground. She could do the first but not the second so easily because of the costume, but did manage to get to her knees. At this time the investigative skills of the officers were able to determine that the gun was not, in fact, a gun, but they continued to order the woman to lay down on the ground, eventually shoving her down with enough force that she bloodied her nose on the inside of the helmet. The story at the second link has a photo of the blood left on the parking lot after the helmet was removed. She was handcuffed and put into the back of a patrol car, but not arrested or charged.

The officers, showing the same keen grasp they had displayed all along of how to de-escalate situations, threatened to arrest a person who recorded the incident on his cell phone. They also threatened to arrest the owner as he explained the employee was working for him and the costume restricted her movement.

Initially, their superior -- the same one who claimed "multiple 911 calls" as mentioned in the story -- said the matter "seemed" to be a misunderstanding but defended some of his officers' actions by using a lot of Canadian words that translate, "I also played hockey goalie without a helmet."

Now, as the version of the story at the first link points out, there will be a "service investigation" of the matter to see if the officers' actions were appropriate. There does not need to be any investigation. There need to be multiple summary terminations. Let the officers argue their way back into the privilege of wearing a badge. Let them demonstrate that, despite copious evidence to the contrary, they do have the judgment required to be agents of the state's monopoly on legal force. Let their supervisor argue that, despite his mealy-mouthed "she started it" speech, he is capable of actual leadership and recognizing when his people do not know their holsters from holes in the ground.

I know many law enforcement officers and I am constantly grateful for the way that thousands of them risk life and limb every day to keep people safe. I am amazed by the bravery they display on a common, sometimes everyday basis. But these three showed they do not merit the job they have and the trust placed in them. This woman could have been shot dead -- that is, after all, why the police point loaded weapons at you, because they have decided they might need to use them. Their defenders might say it wouldn't have come to that, but nothing about what they did gives me any reason to believe that.

If they do not have the judgment to recognize that they are facing a person in a movie costume after they learn the "weapon" is molded plastic and after the store owner says, "That's my employee!" then why should anyone believe they would know when they should or should not pull their triggers?