Vernon Harper: No grief for the son a mother couldn’t save

Re “Mother grieves over life, death of troubled son shot by police” (Front page, May 22): Another hit piece about our police by Jeff Jardine. They were supposed to know and understand a man who was pulling a gun on them. Maybe they should have let him fire a couple rounds and then return fire. The mother believes the police had to know that even though he had a loaded 44 and he pulled it on the police and did not drop it when told to, twice, that he would not have shot at them.

Then Jardine tells us what a fine upstanding person Fletcher was. A troubled life, Jardine called it. I don’t call a wife-beater, thief, drug addict and probation violator as someone with a “troubled life.”

The kin always say what a loving son he was. The mother would like to know why the officers fired so many times. A clue, they were in a life-and-death situation.

The mother is asking for one more chance. My God, how many chances do we give a person? This man had all kinds of chances to make the right choice and he didn’t. And now his mother and Jardine would have you believe the police were too quick to shoot.

This story was originally published June 6, 2016 at 6:46 PM with the headline "Vernon Harper: No grief for the son a mother couldn’t save."