For the Humanity of the Deer

Imagine that you are a deer, harmlessly loitering beside the road, when suddenly, six men in a car whiz past while firing their guns at you. Personally, I would be offended. Sadly for this deer, that exact incident occurred on or around November 24, 2006. Five citizens of Harlan and one citizen of Elk Horn were the culprits. But to make this story even more contemptible, three of these hooligans were police officers—Bradley Wendt and Aaron Holtz of the Harlan Police Department and Kent Gries of the Coon Rapids Police Department. All of the members of this party were charged by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Iowa State Patrol with one count of pursuing deer with a motor vehicle and two counts of trespassing, to begin with, but later Brad Wendt was cited in Adair County with shooting from the roadway and failure to display license plates and Dustin Hansen and Ross Burchett, both of Harlan, were charged with shooting from the roadway. Upon coming to work on Monday, February 5, 2007, Wendt and Holtz were told that their services were no longer required. To add insult to his injury, Wendt confronted city officials to find the reasons as to why he does not hold his position at the Police Department. The mayor, city council and administration have refused to reopen his case for investigation. Wendt says that it is his right to know why he was fired and also complains that, now that he has been terminated, it will be practically impossible to get a job with any police force now. In my opinion, Wendt should stand aside gracefully. I also believe that this is a prime example of when Police officers think that wearing a badge makes them invincible and egotistical. It is not proven, but many respectable adults of my acquaintance assume that there was alcohol involved. I hope that this incident stands as an example of inappropriate conduct for all Police officers and people in general.

-Candice Gear