The west side, the east side and now the south side.

Washington is really no stranger to use of force issues within police departments. The Pasco Police Department is the newest member on the list.

On Feb. 10 Antonio Zambrano-Montes, an orchard worker, was shot and killed by Pasco police officers. Zambrano-Montes was throwing rocks at cars, and eventually the police, on a street corner.

In the week that followed, 100s showed up to protest his killing and denounce the force police officers used in the confrontation.

Again, those who are supposed to protect us are on trial.

Police officers should learn to shoot-to-disable, not shoot-to-kill, as a priority. Police officers should not rely on hiding behind their weapons. What’s a rock compared to a bullet; what’s blunt-force trauma compared to a puncture wound?

They injure differently; they kill differently.

I would have been happier to know that Zambrano-Montes was shot in the hand or knee and still lived. At least then I would have known the Pasco officers who shot him cared about his life. And maybe, I would have known the Pasco Police Department were resourceful and tactful with handling situations. They did the easiest, most lazy thing an officer could do, aside from ignoring crime.

Not everything needs to end with a gun.

Our police forces are relying so heavily on guns and other forms of militarized weaponry that they have no sensibility anymore. They have the weaponry, but their brains are absent. I’d appreciate a police force that strategizes, whose officers work together to figure out how to contain a situation that avoids deadly weapons.

I don’t think there is enough being done to work on use of force issues in departments across the country. Already, both the Seattle Police Department and the Spokane Police Department have been investigated by the Department of Justice. In Spokane’s case, that resulted in an overhaul on public policy.

After a mentally disabled man was beaten to death by a Spokane officer in 2006, The Spokesman-Review reported the outcry of Spokanites who felt the need for an oversight program. In 2008, Spokane City Council voted to incorporate a new police ombudsman position at city hall. Now, the Spokane City website makes a list of completed investigations of officer misconduct, going back to 2012, available to the public.
The Pasco Police has no such webpage and no record of civilian oversight. The oversight Pasco has, according to the city’s website, is the Tri-City Special Investigation Unit: comprised of Tri-City police officers.

Pasco’s police department has a “clearinghouse” webpage dedicated to the incident. On that webpage, the department relates information concerning other methods of force officers used. Officers used “low-level force,” then tased the man, and then ultimately shot Zambrano-Montes. If this is the absolute truth, I worry about how much stress Zambrano-Montes was in. The amount of gunshots heard in the video was far too many for a healthy person, let alone one that had been tased and chased.

The video posted on YouTube, filmed by Dario Infante Zuniga from his car, showed officers shooting at Zambrano-Montes from across the street; sirens wailed in the background as three officers ran across the crosswalk and fired their weapons yet again. Zambrano-Montes had his hands out away from his body and he turned to look at the officers. The video showed police only a few feet away from the victim while they shot until he fell to the ground.

A foot chase happened. If anything, the officers could have chased the man as long as they could to exhaust him. He was only throwing rocks. Cars were stopped on the streets near the scene. People stayed away from the action.

The most dangerous people on the sidewalks that day were the three officers firing their guns.