I read on the Web about a woman being killed in a post Red Sox-win melee where an officer discharged some type of non-lethal projectile that hit her in the eye and went into her head.

This smacks of the controversy almost a decade ago when an Iowa City police officer, suspecting a robbery, went into Jay Shaw’s business after hours and shot Eric Shaw, who was only turning to see who was in his father’s business and was holding a telephone in his hand.

Eric Shaw, like this woman, was doing nothing wrong, and the stupidity of a police officer cost them their lives. The officer in the Eric Shaw matter was never imprisoned. At a minimum, the police officer in the Red Sox instance should be dealt with as one would if he or she were guilty of negligent homicide. At a minimum, his or her career as a police officer should end and access to security jobs denied.

This type of incompetence should not be tolerated, and the offending parties punished.

Before anyone lectures me on how hard a police officer’s job is, I simply say that a police officer is not supposed to make mistakes. And there is no reason for Eric Shaw’s or Victoria Snelgrove’s life to be destroyed because of one police officer’s stupidity.

The police officer’s crimes in both cases is not as profane as the murder of the Nebraska soccer player at a postgame party (by accidental shooting), but it is almost as profane and just as useless. Whether it’s a police officer or a civilian, people should be extra wise when they use weapons and discharging a “non-lethal” projectile into a crowd to tame them. Above all, it is the act of a fool whose foolishness is aggravated by a badge of authority.

David Sheets

Junior

Electrical Engineering