Posted on: Sunday, March 9, 2003

EDITORIAL
Slaying of police officer hits home for us all

The shooting death in the line of duty of officer Glen Gaspar leaves in its wake some questions, but also some hard lessons.

The questions will include those involving a Honolulu Police Department policy that all officers must wear some sort of body armor when making arrests, and whether arrest procedures in which officers are trained were precisely followed when suspect Shane Mark, known to be armed and dangerous, was cornered in a Kapolei ice cream parlor Tuesday.

The point of answering these questions is to determine whether Gaspar's death was preventable. It is anguishing enough to lose such a fine man in circumstances arising from an inherently dangerous occupation.

The lessons from this tragedy begin with the advice that the precinct sergeant always had for the officers of television's "Hill Street Blues": "Be careful out there." But it reminds us that the main reason we should think of Honolulu police officers as underpaid is not that they often are lured away to Mainland cities, but that they put their lives on the line for us every day.

We join with the entire community in extending sympathies to Gaspar's family. A suitable way of putting feelings into action would be a donation to the "Officer Glen Gaspar Memorial Fund" at any First Hawaiian Bank branch. The fund will help meet the educational needs of Gaspar's two daughters.