[Peace-discuss] The death of Kelley Wilson

[David Green]

This will be read on CU Progressive News (WEFT) this evening:
Regarding the Death of Kelley WilsonDavid GreenJune 16th, 2016On the evening of Saturday May 7th, 2016, analtercation in Mahomet between a police officer and Dracy “Clint” Pendleton ledto a gun fight, after which Pendleton fled towards I-72. Pendleton died a weeklater in the midst of a shoot-out in Southern Illinois.As a result of the police chase for Pendleton, a motorist inDecatur was killed late in the evening of May 7th. That motorist wasKelley Wilson of Decatur, a 26-year-old single mother of 2 young daughters, whoworked at Panera Bread. Wilson was making a left turn, trying to head south, onthe road on which an Illinois State Police officer was traveling north. That officerwas responding to a call and on his way to I-72 in pursuit of the fleeing Pendleton.He was also injured in the accident, but is recovering.The News-Gazette reported on May 8th: “Master Sgt. Matthew Boerwinkle said thetrooper was in the center of the city when he received the call that a Mahometpolice officer had been shot and that the shooter was headed for Interstate 72.”At that point, there was no information regarding the speed at which theofficer was travelling.On June 15th,the News-Gazette reported: “Macon County Coroner Michael Day said testimony atWednesday's (June 15th) inquest revealed that (ISP Officer Jeff) Denning'sunmarked squad car had its lights and siren activated and was traveling 108 mphjust before the crash and 85 mph at impact.”According to theNews-Gazette, Coroner Day also stated: “Wilson had a blood alcoholconcentration of 0.094%, which is over the limit for an Illinois driver to bepresumed intoxicated. He said the woman also had marijuana byproducts in hersystem.”This fatalcollision was judged by the coroner’s jury to be “accidental.” It should benoted that at 108 miles per hour, a car travels the length of a football fieldin less than 2 seconds. It would be difficult for any ordinary motorist to instantlyjudge that speed, especially in the dark.A commenter onthe News-Gazette website stated: “Driving 108 MPH on a city street to"pursue" a suspect 45 miles away is absurdly reckless.”As anothercommenter noted: “Ms. Wilson's BAC was higher than it should have been and Ican understand the officer's desire to help catch Pendleton. But 108 mph insidea city seems excessive, even with lights and siren.”A third commenterobserved: “I can't fathom how that rate of speed could possibly be withinallowable limits even when pursuing a suspect.  You should not be allowedto jeopardize the rest of the public's safety, even if you're all jacked upabout catching the cop-shooter.”The public isleft with at least two issues in relation to this tragic incident. The firstconcerns the implication that the victim, Kelley Wilson, is being blamed forher death. The second concerns the appropriateness of high-speed chases, especiallyon city streets.At a broaderlevel, concerned citizens might question a hyper-reactive and hyper-empoweredpanic mentality among police officers upon hearing of an attack on anotherpolice officer. Our culture has accorded a unique status to police officers,their choices to use violence, and their choices in responding to violence,especially when that violence is directed at them. Both police culture and thebroader culture need to be critically examined in this light. In our high-tech andhyper-surveilled era, fleeing suspects are inevitably located and captured. Itwould seem that measured and deliberate patience with utmost regard for safetyduring that process, rather than enraged panic, should be the mentality withwhich police are trained to approach such situations.David Green lives in Champaign.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20160620/3d6dc309/attachment-0001.html>