Reader feedback sections in both the on-line Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer editions are loading up with comments (more than 220 in the Times at last count) as the public reacts to Monday afternoon’s fatal shooting by a Seattle police officer of a man apparently carrying a knife. Was the man merely whittling, as has been reported, or did the officer perceive a genuine threat when he confronted the as-yet unidentified man? That’s a question that must be sorted out, and not in the emotion-laden atmosphere surrounding this story right now, but after the situation is analyzed. Perhaps not since...