I recently read about a man from Norway who filed a lawsuit against three Lewiston police officers. This man was committing slicing himself with a knife in a vacant parking lot when a car pulled in. Thinking them to be police, he rushed to the Lewiston police station and began to smash cruiser windows.

An officer who came to retrieve something from her cruiser called for help and rushed to stop him. Two officers responded to her call. They ordered the man to stop. When he rolled onto his back, they fired. Amazingly the man survived, and he is now suing the officers for assault and battery.

This man should not be suing. He did not accept the warnings the officers gave him and he should be thankful for his life. Those officers were trained to kill. The fact he is alive should be enough.

Then there is the matter of how the officers missed. It suggests these officers aren’t comfortable with their weapons. A miss at 10 feet is a problem.

I think this man should not be suing, but thanking the officers for not killing him. The officers need more training, in fact the training course may need to be modified after this incident. The man should not win the suit, but rather lose and have to pay for the court costs.

This man should be punished, not rewarded.

Kenyon Fraser