Selection of Stories Confounds ‘Only Cops Should Have Guns’
May 1, 2006
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor
The anti-gunners are so fond of saying that only the military and police should have guns that I couldn’t resist a column contradicting them when I encountered so many related stories collected in a short period of time from various newspapers and websites. Usually, some of these stories would be part of our Weekly Bullet column, but these incidents are connected by more than one thread.
Many people, inside and outside of the law enforcement community, have been deeply concerned with the “dumbing down” of qualification standards for law enforcement personnel under various pretexts as well as the increasing militarization of police forces. Maybe all of these elements contribute to the glut of news reports involving cops who overreact or do dumb things.
The first story, from The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, VA, involves a report that Virginia Beach has agreed to change the way it scores police math exams because the federal government says the city’s math exam for police recruits is discriminatory.
The city has reached a settlement with the US Justice Department to resolve allegations that it discriminated against black and Hispanic police recruits, The Virginian-Pilot reported in early April.
Lowered Standards
Under a consent decree filed in federal court in Norfolk, the city will change the way it scores the police entrance exam.
The city will offer to let 124 black and Hispanic former applicants resume the hiring process. Those recruits failed the math test between 2002 and 2005 but would have passed under the new standards. The city also will create a $160,000 fund to compensate those applicants.
In the 27-page settlement, the Justice Department states that the city did not intentionally discriminate against blacks and Hispanics.
In a letter to the city in February, the Justice Department said Virginia Beach had “engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination” against black and Hispanic applicants.
The Justice Department claimed that the test’s pass-fail system had a disproportionate effect on minorities because the passing rates for blacks and Hispanics were less than 80% of the passing rate for whites. From 2002 to mid-2005, about 85% of white applicants passed the math exam, compared with 59% of blacks and 66% of Hispanics.
Under the old standard, Virginia Beach required all recruits to score 70% on each of three written tests for reading comprehension, grammar and spelling, and math.
The Justice Department questioned whether math is relevant to the daily duties of a police officer. The city agreed to eliminate the 70% cutoff score for the math part of the test.
Under the new standard, an applicant must score at least 70% on the reading and grammar test and score an average of at least 60% on all three parts of the exam.
At least one city official, Councilwoman Reba McClanan, said she does not agree with the settlement.
“One of the things that’s insulting about it is they’re telling us we don’t have a right to insist on certain standards,” McClanan said. “My feeling was we should hang in there. We want fairness and we want as many minorities working for our departments as possible, but we also want them to meet certain standards.”
The court could hold a hearing as early as July. Then the city will know what the 124 former applicants chose to do. A second court hearing will be scheduled to determine the amount of compensation per applicant. That amount will depend on the number of people who apply.
NYPD Blues
Now keep in mind that the Virginia Beach experience is only one example of changing standards. There have been other changes related to a police applicant’s size and physical abilities, etc.
Then note this Apr. 11 report from The New York Post in which an ex-New York Police Department detective went berserk following a fit of road rage on Staten Island, unleashing a hail of bullets that killed a retired hero cop and wounded his trusty work dog.
Steve Vitale, who once headed the Port Authority Police Department’s canine unit—which helped recover bodies from the World Trade Center bombing in 1993—was shot in front of his horrified wife.
Vitale died at Staten Island University Hospital shortly after 6:45 p.m. as SWAT teams surrounded the house of the alleged shooter, former Manhattan Detective Allen Lau of the 17th Precinct.
Lau had been tailgating Vitale and flashing a rifle through the window, authorities said. “Look at this nut,” Vitale told his wife, before pulling his Jeep Cherokee into a Richmond Hill Road strip mall to pick up Chinese food, police sources said.
When Lau got out of his Honda, words were exchanged, witnesses said, and Lau pulled out the rifle and fired at least eight rounds at Vitale.
The ex-detective then allegedly tried to shoot Vitale’s wife, who was sitting in the passenger seat, missed and hit the dog, who is expected to survive.
Also on Apr. 11, The Post reported that a retired NYPD officer with a reputation for philandering was stalked and then ambushed by his estranged wife, an active NYPD officer, who pulled alongside his car on a Brooklyn street and repeatedly shot him, according to law-enforcement sources.
Within hours, authorities apprehended 70th Precinct Officer Alison Jamison outside a rental-car office at Newark Airport on suspicion that “she tried to kill her Don Juan hubby, Todd Jamison in a jealous rage,” sources said.
Law-enforcement sources say Alison tailed Todd, 43, in a rental car on an East New York street at about 10 a.m. Apr. 10, pulled up next to him and let loose with several rounds from her 9mm service pistol, blowing out her own passenger-side window in the process. The off-duty cop drove off—only to make a U-turn and allegedly shoot at him again.
Federal Agents
The Boston Herald reported on Apr. 6 that an enforcement officer for the US Department of Commerce is facing attempted murder charges in connection with a Massachusetts hit-and-run road rage incident in South Boston on Mar. 29 that left a motorcyclist critically injured.
The Herald reported that Thomas Porro, 34, who was arrested on Apr. 4 after police called him in to talk, and later pleaded not guilty in the South Boston division of Boston Municipal Court, was released on $10,000 cash bail.
But the silver 2004 Nissan Maxima authorities believe was a government car, Porro was driving when he allegedly ran Frank Merlonghi and his 2003 Harley-Davidson off the road, is missing.
The prosecutor said Boston police also are checking into witness accounts that Porro threatened Merlonghi, 45, with a handgun during a moving argument that led to Merlonghi being hospitalized with two fractured legs and several busted ribs.
Procopio confirmed police seized a gun and federal badge when Porro was booked.
You find stories like these in the media almost every day. They don’t do much to restore confidence in the American constabulary. Of course, things could be worse. If the anti-gunners had their way, we’d have British-style policing and no right or means to self-defense. Return to Archive Index
