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"No flames, just a question. Are you against all police pursuits?"

Not at all, the police have to give some sort of persuit of a criminal. But there is a massive difference between a pilfered car with seven young teens in it and a getaway car speeding away from the scene of an armed bank robbery. If that cop's daughter were in the car would he have chased it down like that, or would he have radiod ahead for help and tried to just block it off down the road? You and I both know the answer to that question.

We were all born with brains and, hopefully, a sense of fairness and decency. How important to society is it that we chase down seven kids on a joy ride at all costs, even at the cost of their lives or the lives of innocent bystanders? Sorry, but it's just that I clearly remember a different time, with a different attitude in society. Police Commissioners, Cheifs and Mayors did NOT want these high speed chases for petty crimes.... they had the brains and compassion to understand that the benefits of nabbing a teen car theif did not outweigh the risks involved in a high speed chase. And this incident is a perfect example of why it's just plain WRONG. Human life has been devalued not only in the abortion clinics, but all over our society now.

Okay. But I'll repeat what I said before... how could they have known beforehand who was in the car and why they ran? The cops flip the lights on, the car takes off, the cops don't know it's a car load of joyriding teenagers. It could have been somebody who just committed armed robbery or murder, there could be a carjack victim in the car, they just don't know. Now what?

Many agencies have adopted a policy that limits pursuit. If a suspect starts racing away like a bat-out-of-hell, the initiating officer backs off hoping that the suspects will slow down. The radio and dispatch do the rest and the suspect is usually cornered and quits. Usually, There are cases when the driver is on loco weed or just plain loco and keeps going at mach1 in spite of what the officer does. We should give the officer the benefit of the doubt until we know what happened. Everybody here should know that if you read in in the press its either incomplete, inaccurate, or FUBAR.

... there is a massive difference between a pilfered car with seven young teens in it and a getaway car speeding away from the scene of an armed bank robbery

True, though there is nothing in the text of the article that indicates what facts were known at the time. Now, perhaps, it may be a "petty crime" as you say, but the article does not give many other details beyond describing a driver that should have been removed from the roadway. In the act of evading law enforcement the driver killed all who were in the car. Tragic? YES. Avoidable? Another YES. Fault? The driver, not the pursuer.

Unfortunately, a very sad piece of news.

Police Commissioners, Cheifs and Mayors did NOT want these high speed chases for petty crimes.

You say that. But I doubt it. It seems to me that earlier generations had a more aggressive attitude towards policing. I mean when they finally got sick of chasing Bonnie and Clyde around they just set up an ambush and gunned them down. And no one really seemed to mind. So I have trouble believing that back in the day cops thought very much of criminals who take their own lives into their hands.