by Justin Otto
The recent death of Victor Steen raises some interesting questions.
What exactly was the crime he was being pursued for? He was hanging around a construction site which is apparently illegal, but why? If the thought was that he was stealing things from the site, I might see a reason for the pursuit by Officer Jerald Ard. In my opinion though, it would be more than a bit difficult to steal anything from a construction site on a bike.
So, why did this crime deserve chase? Still, no one but Mr. Ard himself knows why this was a justifiable pursuit when he flipped on his lights and gave chase after the young man for the minor crime of trespassing on a site that no one inhabited — a chase that ended in the death of 17-year-old Steen.
I am not bringing allegations that Steen was guilty or innocent of any crime other than trespassing because, granted, he was on a constructional site which is technically a crime.
But does the crime justify death, even if it was accidental? I am not bringing allegations that Officer Ard wasn’t just in pursuing him. What I am saying is that the Pensacola Police Department needs a serious evaluation and overhaul.
Since the incident, they have changed the protocol for taser use, so now an officer is not allowed to fire their tasers from moving vehicles. I always thought it was common sense that you wouldn’t do something that asinine in the first place, but I suppose I was wrong.
I myself have never been tased, but I have been stopped, searched and harassed for what seemed like nothing than the shear amusement of the officer at the time. What the officers in Pensacola, and in America in general, seem to forget most of the time is that they work for us. They are civil servants. We the citizens pay their salaries only sometimes to get treated as if we aren’t worthy to walk the streets.
There are times and places for the use of force and aggression, but there are many cases that seem the aggression gets out of hand. Why would you tase someone just to get them to stop riding their bike? Did you actually witness a major infraction of the law? If there was no real justifiable crime deserving of force and this boy got tased, does that mean that I could get tased for jaywalking? Is there a limit?
All in all, it teaches us a lesson. A lesson that says we might be better just sitting at home rather than going out due to the risk of allegations of minor offenses and the possibility of recourse for a crime that we may not have even been party to — or even known was a crime.
I have also on numerous occasions watched as officers flipped their lights and sirens on to simply get through a red light faster, only to flip them off once through. I have seen officers talk on cell phones while driving. I have seen officers not wearing seat belts. These are things that we the citizens cannot do without repercussion, so why no repercussions for the officers?
Running a red light just because you can is ultimately an abuse of power. That seems to happen a lot actually — abuse of power. Just because you can get away with something doesn’t mean that you should do it.
I always was taught to lead by example and I always thought that the police worked on the same policy. But when you see things like this current tragedy, you have to wonder if that is the example that we really should follow.