June 7, 2019
Yesterday, in West Bountiful, Utah, a police officer who was involved in a multi-agency manhunt for two adult suspects stopped his vehicle and drew his firearm on a 10-year-old black child who was playing in his front yard. The officer ordered the child at gunpoint to get on the ground before determining that he did not fit the description of the suspects and quickly leaving without further explanation. The incident was witnessed in part by the child’s mother, who ran outside to the child’s defense.
A lieutenant with the Woods Cross Police Department dismissed this as “an unfortunate situation” in which the boy was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
As mothers, grandmothers, and caregivers of children in our families and communities, we denounce in unequivocal terms both the completely indefensible behavior of the officer and the subsequent response of the police department. We will not stand by while law enforcement representatives claim the officer did the right thing and shrug off the concerns while insisting that this was acceptable police protocol. Accosting an innocent child at play in his own yard with a drawn gun is not and will never be acceptable under any circumstances.
We are immeasurably grateful for those members of the law enforcement community who work so diligently and often at great personal risk to ensure our safety, but we are not content to live in a community where it is acceptable for children to be treated in ways that would be problematic even for adults, especially when non-white children are disproportionately impacted. We urge law enforcement agencies throughout the state to review their policies, meet with concerned citizens, and change whatever internal policies allow for such clearly unethical behaviors and justification. And we call for the implementation of long-overdue independent review boards and citizen oversight of our law enforcement agencies.
In addition to apologizing to this family and the broader community, the Woods Cross Police Department must take immediate action to conduct a broader review of racial inequity in the department’s policing standards, institute implicit bias training for all officers and dispatchers, conduct an official review of this particular incident, and work quickly and with full transparency to repair and strengthen the public trust, particularly among the black community.
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Mormon Women for Ethical Government (MWEG) is a nonpartisan grassroots organization dedicated to the ideals of decency, honor, accountability, transparency, and justice in governing. MWEG is not affiliated with or endorsed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We do, however, fully sustain the leaders and doctrines of the Church.
Photo by Matt Popovich on Unsplash
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