Date: Thu, 06 May 1999 22:59:45 -0700
From: "D.W. Kugelstadt" 
Subject: Regarding the Tyisha Miller incident.

Mr. Thomas:

I have been reading, with some interest, a couple of your articles and
I find you very eloquent.  I don't usually find the time to write when
something I hear in the news outrages me but this incident actually
makes me feel ill.  I just heard that the Riverside DA will not charge
those four officers with anything.  This I find unbelievable!  I just
re-read the story on the CNN web site and again I found myself getting
very angry as I did the first time I heard the story.  I wanted to
forward a note I wrote to the Riverside police chief.  I would hope
that we could encourage many, many more people to write to them and
the DA's office to express this outrage.  I don't know what this young
girls problem was but I bet it had something to do with depression.
What she needed at that moment was help and a little compassion, not
nervous trigger happy police!  This whole thing makes me sick.  I know
it is not much but I wish I had a way to express my deepest
condolences to this young girls family.  This did not have to happen!

------------------------------------FORWARD---------------------------------------------------

Mr. Carroll:

I just heard on the news that the officers involved in the shooting of

Tyisha Miller are not to be held responsible for their actions.  I
must say in all honesty this actually makes me feel ill!  I just
re-read the account from the CNN report and it appears to me that
someone was trigger happy.  I don't see any reason why 23 shots were
fired into a car with a 19 year old "unresponsive" woman in it.  I
don't know if she actually had a gun in her possession of if that was
just rumor.  If she did she could have been suicidal and in desperate
need of help.  The apparent hail of bullets from the officers suggests

very strongly that these men are right on the edge all the time.  I
know the police have, in general, a steep uphill climb every day in
this society and I am a strong booster of the police most of the
time.  We have a very nice community here in Simi Valley partly due to

the police.  When, however, I hear stories like this one I have to
question who's minding the store.  When we a a society put people on
the street to "protect" the public and give them firearms we must make

sure they are in full control of themselves.  I have heard or read of
nothing that suggested this young girl was a threat to anyone.  If she

was alert and waving the gun around or tried to get out of the car
with it I would say that would be a different story.  Right now every
gut instinct in me says she was murdered by these officers.  This
incident and the handling of it by the Department and the DA has taken

my traditional high esteem of the police down a notch.
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Best wishes,

--
Dave Kugelstadt
Simi Valley, CA
bd-dwk@earthlink.net