In The Pursuit of Protection

Imagine you are speeding down the road going 75 mph in a 55 mph zone. All of a sudden you see blue lights in your rear view mirror. What do you do? Do you slow your car and pull over; or do you increase your speed to 85 and continue down the road?

Now imagine you are a police officer in pursuit of a fleeing suspect. You radio for permission to continue the pursuit and to end the chase. Instead of receiving this permission you are told to break the pursuit, to let them go.

The Supreme Court is hearing evidence and ruling this week on the case of a 19 year-old who made the decision to run. Victor Harris is now a quadriplegic after Deputy Sheriff Timothy Scott rammed into his car in order to stop the pursuit.

The argument from Harris’ lawyers is that Scott used excessive and deadly force against an offender who posed no immediate threat to the public. However, Harris was recorded at times running between 80 and 90 mph, and was recorded changing lanes over a double yellow line if any cars were in his way. Personally, that sounds like a threat to me.

The prospect of laws defining “necessary” force concerns me. This concerns me because law, for the most part, is left open to interpretation. In a split second decision, an officer is likely to shy away from the choice that could find him facing a judge. This means many criminals would begin to get away simply because they drove faster and more dangerously.

What this causes is a situation in which criminals running from the police can see a light at the end of the tunnel. If they can run a little faster, or drive a little more reckless, the police will quit pursuing them. I believe that mentality in a criminal is far more dangerous than the current situation we have, in which most of the time it is the fleeing driver who is injured.

What of the rights of the criminal, a person may ask. It occurs to me that most of the fleeing drivers every year are adults, capable of making their own decisions. If they decide to flee, they are putting their own life at risk, as well as the life of many others. My question is: What of the rights of the police and innocent bystanders?

Innocent drivers and pedestrians deserve to be protected from reckless and dangerous drivers; letting criminals go if they try hard enough is not the way to achieve this protection.