A Guy With A Gun (Visit the Cablevision Editorials website at cveditorials/LI) This chilling 911 call was a last desperate plea for help: Theres a guy with a gun. Please come fast, quickly. Please, please, please. This call came to Suffolk police shortly before Santia Williams was gunned down by Jason Jenkins, a violent former boyfriend who had been ordered to stay away from her or face arrest. When police finally did arrive, they needed body bags instead of handcuffs. Jenkins shot himself, after killing Williams. As Newsday and News 12 Long Island reported, Suffolk County is now being sued in a civil case that argues police officers intentionally and repeatedly failed to arrest Jenkins for violating Williams court ordered protection, arrests mandated by state law. This case is being pursued by lawyer Fred Brewington, who successfully sued Nassau County for failing to protect another victim of domestic violence, JoAnna Bird. Nassau settled the case with Birds family for $7.7 million. In both cases, police agencies stonewalled news media, frustrating their attempts to uncover internal affairs reports detailing police misconduct. Suffolk legislators shouldnt allow this to happen again. They should ask Police Commissioner Ed Webber to explain why he has not released an internal affairs report to news media. And they should review it themselves. They should also find out whether any of those named were disciplined. Also, state legislators should act to repeal laws that cloak internal affairs investigations in secrecy. And they should reconsider legislation recently approved by the Assembly that holds police officers liable if civil courts rule that they failed to arrest those violating protection orders. Police need to be held accountable. Presented by Peter Kohler August 19, 2014
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 12:00:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015