Pubdate: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 Source: Modesto Bee, The (CA) Copyright: 2001 The Modesto Bee Contact: http://www.modbee.com/help/letters.html Website: http://www.modbee.com/ Author: Norman Vanspronsen TOO MUCH FORCE The official report on the Sepulveda tragedy is about what we may expect. City and law enforcement bureaucrats will try to decoy us by endlessly discussing the trivia of the invasion of the Sepulvedas' home and the resulting death of a family member. Analyzing an officer's hand movements or the position of other equipment on his body is not central to the incident. The officer's intentions seem above reproof; he has had years of experience on the force and on the SWAT team. The question officials resist answering is "Why were armed officers in the home in the first place?" The first letter in the acronym SWAT stands for "special." This arrest didn't require "special weapons" or even "special tactics." It would have been routine in the extreme. Sepulveda could have been arrested two hours later at his place of business while his children were in school. Every administrator experiences the inherent pressure to overuse whatever resource he has at his disposal. If a system or resource lies unused, its funding may be restricted or it may wither away completely. Who hasn't, on purchasing his first riding lawn mower, decided to mow a larger area around his driveway? An old adage has it that "to a kid with a new hammer, everything looks like a nail." Law enforcement administrators are not immune to the same forces. Every time we use a very dangerous weapon, there is always a chance of an accident, and a SWAT team represents a massive amount of force. It follows that the more we use that force, the more accidents will occur. The fault in this death lies squarely at the feet of high-ranking administrators across the several law enforcement bodies involved, not in the hands of the officers who carry out orders as best they can. NORMAN VanSPRONSEN Modesto, Jan. 12 - --- MAP posted-by: GD