Two years ago, as police shootings across the country were receiving renewed scrutiny, Robert Sberna began an investigation that lead him to pen Badge 387, a compelling new biography of “supercop” Jim Simone. With the book now hitting the shelves, Sberna gives us his take on shoot/don’t shoot situations, what we can do to prevent them and the role of the media.
Q: Did you come to any conclusions over the course of writing the book about why police shootings happen or what we can do to limit them?
A: Yes, I did. In the split second of a police shooting, when somebody’s facing a gun, it’s probably a bit much to ask an officer to roll the dice and decide if somebody’s gonna shoot. I don’t know that anybody in that situation wouldn’t be afraid and take some self-defense measures. But the elements of that shooting that come before that, you know, the actual physical approach of the officers to the scene, what’s said, the communication that goes between the officers and dispatch, for example. Maybe that can be improved.
Q: You devote a significant portion of this book to the Vietnam War. Why?
A: I think I tied in Vietnam just to show that everything matters, everything comes into play when you have somebody in a split second situation. In a war zone if you knew you had to shoot somebody or they would shoot you, does your mind then kick into that gear when you’re in the streets? It’s worth taking a look at.
Q: Officer Joseph Paskvan, Simone, and author Dave Grossman all suggest in the book that the media coverage of police shootings is biased. Do you believe that’s true?
A: I think the news media these days covers events, not news. For example, ‘police kill unarmed man.’ Bam, headline. Well technically that might be true, but in order to get … that story online quickly, because there’s so much competition now … there’s no time to get the background of the story. In fact, the police might not even know what happened, the circumstances. Back 40, 30 years ago there’s maybe an unspoken agreement between police and media, you know give us … a couple hours to find out what happened, we’ll give you a story. Well that doesn’t happen anymore.