Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer’s decision not to prosecute the deputy who shot to death a homeless man in San Clemente in 2020 raises the same old unresolved questions about whether the public can trust the current system of police accountability. It’s the latest example of how the oversight system primarily protects officers rather than the public.
To be clear, we don’t disagree with Spitzer’s ultimate conclusion, but the department’s 10-page report reads as if it were penned by the deputy’s defense attorney or union representative. Despite its patina of objectivity, it only trumpets the officers’ perspective, maligns the victim by bringing up past arrests, and never challenges the dubious policing decisions that led to the tragic use of deadly force.
Per the report, on Sept. 23, 2020, deputies Jonathan Israel and Eduardo Duran approached a homeless, 42-year-old Black man named Kurt Reinhold. The two officers are Homeless Liaison Officers trained by the sheriff’s department to “’de-escalate’ situations with homeless people in the field” and direct them to social services, which makes the ordeal even more perplexing.
They reportedly tried to detain Reinhold on suspicion of jaywalking, but he ignored their command and began walking into the street. The two deputies tried to direct Reinhold back onto the sidewalk. They got into a tussle, with Duran tackling Reinhold – and Reinhold somehow landing on Israel. The report said Reinhold grabbed Israel’s gun and Duran then shot Reinhold.
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Prosecutors can’t charge an officer for shooting a man who grabbed his partner’s weapon, but we can’t fathom what those deputies learned in “de-escalation” training.
Homeless liaison officers are supposed to pursue alternatives to confrontation – not ratchet up a jaywalking offense into a life-or-death struggle. They should understand that homeless people suffer from a variety of social problems and often are not compliant.
Yet the DA’s report focused on little more than defending the deputies. That’s no surprise.
Frankly, most district attorney’s offices are too closely allied with local police agencies and police unions to provide meaningful oversight, and new state rules have not yet moved the needle.