Mesa Legend - Students Observing and Scrutinizing


Volume 41, Issue 3. Today is .

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Volume 41, Issue 3
September 30, 2003

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September 30, 2003

Students Observing and Scrutinizing

There has been a lot of coverage recently on Mesa police officers shooting suspects. Has this changed your perception of law enforcement?

Amber Fitzwater Undeclared -18-	John Old Elk Journalism -19-	John DeLuca Computer Engineering -19-
“I don’t think there’s a problem. If someone came at me with a weapon, I would shoot and keep shooting.”	“I think it’s kind of scary, in a way, that cops are shooting people. I think they have enough training to disarm someone with a knife.”	“I guess they have probable cause. They came at them with a knife, and the Taser didn’t work. They didn’t have a choice. I don’t think anyone wants to shoot a 15-year-old.”

Josh Lozano Business -19-	Ben Hutchins Communications -21-	Diane Bales Speech and Hearing Science -22-
“No, because I don’t do anything to provoke police officers. The media’s angle is fear-based. If people didn’t attack police officers, they wouldn’t be shot.”	“The media’s definitely sinking their teeth into it. I think they’re taking advantage of an extreme situation, when I don’t think it’s really a common problem.”	“I think the Mesa police is trigger-happy, because you don’t hear about other police departments. We should reform this sort of thing, give the officers psychological evaluations first.”

Kristina Kirschenmann Undeclared -18-	Hyrum Henderson Mortuary Science -25-
“I’ve never had a really good opinion of law enforcement. But who knows exactly what’s really going on. I try to stay away from that kind of stuff.”	“I believe that cops have a very stressful job. It is a real problem with some cops, but I think it could be really easily over- exaggerated.”

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