Modesto cop’s punishment for killing unarmed man should be standard for rogue officers

When a police officer sworn to protect and to serve instead hunts down and kills, he should no longer be a police officer.

Joseph Lamantia is no longer a police officer.

His superiors at the Modesto Police Department and at City Hall made the right call, announcing Thursday Lamantia’s termination for having slain an unarmed man outside a church on Dec. 29.

And that’s just the start. Lamantia now faces criminal charges for killing 29-year-old Trevor Seever that tragic day.

Of all the options open to Lamantia when he spotted Seever — waiting for backup, requesting a K-9 unit, following Seever, calling out to identify himself as a policeman — Lamantia chose the most extreme, the most impatient and the most deadly. That reflects the mentality of an authoritarian warrior, not a public servant.

The action also violates department policy, which interim Police Chief Brandon Gillespie cited as a principal reason for firing Lamantia.

Any officer choosing to spill blood rather than to talk things out, in violation of human decency as well as department policy, should not expect to be employed any longer, and should expect to face prosecution. And possibly, time behind bars.

Officers perform extremely dangerous duties under impossible pressure. Often they are forced to make split-second decisions without the luxury of reflection on circumstances or training.

It’s worth noting that most usually respond without lethal force. Only 27% of law enforcement officers discharge firearms on duty in their entire careers, the Pew Research Center reported in 2017 after the National Police Research Platform surveyed nearly 8,000 police officers across the United States.

Lamantia, who faced zero threat from Seever, used zero patience and zero compassion. And it’s not the first time.

In 2010, he and another Modesto police officer were under the impression that Francisco Moran had a butcher knife when they shot and killed him. It turned out he had a spatula.

Four of the five people Lamantia has shot in 11 years died.

Hoping to reduce senseless violations — and to keep Modesto from getting sued — the police department requires that officers go through eight hours of critical incident training every other year. Deescalation training apparently didn’t work with Lamantia.

Seever paid the ultimate price. That should never happen.

Unfortunately, it does. Too often.

Lethal force by Stanislaus deputy and Ceres cop

This editorial board recently condemned the killings of three other people at the hands of local officers. Two — Evin Yadegar, in 2017, and Carmen Spencer Mendez, in 2018 — were fleeing, as Seever may have been. The officers’ parent agencies — Stanislaus County and the city of Ceres — respectively paid $7 million and $2.1 million to settle lawsuits with survivors, because neither was a “good shoot.”

These tragedies form a backdrop for Modesto’s announcement Thursday that Modesto Mayor Sue Zwahlen will convoke a committee of regular people to hear people’s concerns, and “to consider the community’s interest in Modesto Police Department policies and practices.” They’re expected to take several months developing recommendations.

That response aligns with The Bee’s recent call for civilian review of law enforcement, which would add a layer of transparency and help to strengthen all-important trust between police and the people they serve.

The Modesto Bee on Jan. 8 called for leaders to hold Lamantia accountable. Gillespie, Zwahlen and Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager are attempting that.

Nothing they do can make things right for Seever or his loved ones, but holding accountable a trigger-happy cop — and trying to figure out how to keep it from happening again — are steps in the right direction.

This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 3:24 PM.