It happened in a parking lot. Four and a half months after Everett police officer Troy Meade shot Niles Meservey to death in the Chuckwagon Inn restaurant parking lot, I had an unexpected police encounter.
It was delightful.
On Oct. 24, 2009, my boy’s 11th birthday, we stopped at Henry’s Donuts on Broadway in Everett. It was early, and not quite light. Instead of sending cupcakes to school, I was buying doughnuts for my son’s class to celebrate his birthday.
We were in a hurry and didn’t notice anyone drinking coffee and listening as we picked out the treats we wanted. I was apparently overheard telling the woman behind the counter what the occasion was.
Back outside, as I juggled cars keys, my purse and a doughnut box, a man came up behind me. Just as I turned and saw it was a uniformed Everett police officer, he said something like, “Ma’am, may I talk to this young man?” He proceeded to shake my son’s hand and wish him a happy birthday.
That nice young officer may not remember it, but we certainly do.
My memory of that happy morning came to mind as I learned of developments Wednesday in police shooting cases in Everett and Seattle.
Here, lawyers announced that the city of Everett has tentatively agreed to settle a wrongful death lawsuit, for $500,000, with Meservey’s family. The Stanwood man was drunk, had refused to get out of his car, and drove into a fence before Meade shot him from behind — seven times. In 2010, a jury in a criminal case sent a mixed message. Jurors acquitted Meade of second-degree murder, but found he hadn’t proved he shot in self-defense.
Also Wednesday, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg announced that Seattle police officer Ian Birk won’t face criminal charges. Birk, who on Aug. 30 shot and killed tribal woodcarver John T. Williams, resigned from the Seattle Police Department after the announcement. Williams was shot after failing to drop a 3-inch knife, as Birk had ordered him to do. Findings released by the Seattle police Firearms Review Board called the shooting “unjustified and outside of policy, tactics and training.”
Unlike Birk, Everett’s officer Meade remains on paid administrative leave.
Police and legal experts who looked at these controversial cases from every angle have spoken. Neither Birk nor Meade have been found to be culpable of any crime.
We all have strong opinions on these killings. Some of us feel that police use of deadly force has gone way too far. Others, especially since the 2009 murders of a Seattle police officer from Marysville and the four Lakewood officers, support police actions without question.
Opinions are so polarized there seems to be no middle ground. There are, though, hundreds of people caught in the middle. They are the ones in police uniforms, the ones sworn to protect and serve the rest of us.
What about that great majority of fine officers if the public loses trust in them because of aggressive, unwarranted actions by a few?
Seeing reports of anger over these questionable shootings, I can’t help but think about that Everett policeman who made a positive impression on my young son. Will that officer, through no fault of his own, now face the snap judgments of people whose faith in law enforcement has been eroded?
From what I’ve read of the shootings by Meade and Birk, anger is understandable. It’s also worrisome. Mistrust could add new perils to a job that already puts police lives on the line.
At a court appearance in December, Christopher Monfort while criticizing his prosecutor and his public defender read aloud the names of people killed by police in Washington. Monfort is accused of killing Marysville’s Timothy Brenton, the Seattle police officer who was sitting in a patrol car doing his job when he was gunned down on a Halloween night.
Public perception matters. Trust lost isn’t easily regained. That’s all the more true in communities where children’s first encounters with police are unlikely to be birthday greetings.
I have no doubt that officers go out to do their best each day. The hair-trigger police actions of a few can’t possibly make life on the beat any better — or safer.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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