Fairfax County Police Watch: an unidentified Fairfax County police officer made some hurtful remarks regarding the character of the people

The Washington Times

July 20, 1995, Thursday, Final Edition

Matters of trust: How police see citizens' rights ...

SECTION: Part A; COMMENTARY; EDITORIALS; LETTERS; Pg. A22

LENGTH: 443 words

I was quite disturbed to read your July 12 editorial "Sent packing in Fairfax," in which Fairfax County Police Chief M. Douglas Scott and an unidentified Fairfax County police officer made some hurtful remarks regarding the character of the people applying for a concealed-weapon permit under Virginia's new concealed-weapon law.

The Washington Times reported that Chief Scott remarked that the new concealed-weapon law was "really scary." Your editorial also stated that an unidentified officer, upon seeing residents lined up to get their concealed-weapon permit applications, remarked, "Here comes the Wild West."

I don't intend to debate the merits of the concealed-weapons law. Rather, I wonder why Chief Scott and some police officers seemingly have such contempt for me and others like me as we merely go about exercising our rights under the law.

Implied in the statements that it's "really scary" and "Here comes the Wild West" is an attitude that places a barrier between the police and me. I am not a police officer, and I don't know any officers. I can imagine, however, that daily, grinding contact with the criminal (or marginally criminal) element of Fairfax has left its mark.

I am sure that the police - in order to survive - hold a view of the public that differs from mine. Nevertheless, I ask that Chief Scott reconsider his view because he is missing the fact that the vast majority of Fairfax residents support, defend and respect the police. I am concerned, then, that police would think any less of me simply because I wish to exercise my right to apply for a concealed-weapon permit.

I didn't know what to expect when I arrived at the Fairfax County police station annex on July 3, the first day of the application process. Aside from the long line (which I did expect), I found a delightful cross section of Fairfax County residents - black and white, young and old, men and women. If Chief Scott had been there, he would have seen the average law-abiding Fairfax County resident. He need not fear them. In fact, his job would be much easier if all Fairfax County residents were like the people in line that day.

Responsible citizens have rights, and with those rights come obligations. For a long time, the courts have held such people in contempt, presuming to know their needs and acting with destructive benevolence and active indifference. Virginia Gov. George Allen has transformed the situation, transferring an obligation from the state and placing it back where it belongs, with the citizen.

ANTHONY R. VANCHIERI

Alexandria

Morrogh finds cop he doesn’t love. In other news, hell freezes.

Probe of fatal police shooting goes to federal authorities

By Justin Jouvenal/Post

The Fairfax County prosecutor has turned over the investigation of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed Springfield man to federal authorities, citing complications with the five-month-old case.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia has agreed to continue the probe into the death of 46-year-old John Geer, who was shot during a standoff with Fairfax County police in August. No one has been charged in the incident.

“There is a conflict of interest that has arisen in the case,” Morrogh said Thursday. “And there is a second potential conflict of interest that has arisen out of my office. . . . This is the prudent thing to do.”

Morrogh declined to describe the nature of the conflicts because the investigation is ongoing. The U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday that it could not confirm or deny any investigation or comment on pending investigations.

Police went to Geer’s Pebble Brook Court home on Aug. 29 because of a report of a domestic disturbance. Geer’s father, Don Geer, said his son was upset because his girlfriend, the mother of his two children, had decided to leave him.

John Geer had thrown his girlfriend’s belongings in the front yard. She called police and told them that Geer had a firearm. Police said they tried for about 50 minutes to persuade Geer to leave the home, but he refused.

Don Geer said he watched the climax of the encounter. He said that he could not hear what officers were saying to his son but that he saw him standing with empty hands resting on top of a screen door at the home’s entrance.

At some point, John Geer began to slowly lower his hands and an officer opened fire, hitting Geer in the chest, his father said. Geer retreated inside and closed the door. A SWAT team eventually entered the home and found Geer dead.

Don Geer said detectives later told him that his son did not have a gun on him at the time of the shooting but that there was a holstered handgun a couple of steps from the front door.

Don Geer said it appeared to him that the shooting was unjustified, but he was unsure what to make of the probe being turned over to federal authorities.

“I don’t know whether that’s good or bad — if I had a better idea of why they are doing it, I could form an opinion,” he said.

Geer and friends of his son have been critical of how long the investigation has taken, but Morrogh said police and prosecutors were working to explore all the evidence. He did not think federal prosecutors would have to start from scratch.

“No one wants these things to linger on,” Morrogh said.

Our ink will outlast his career

Under the reign of former Chief of Police Rhorer the Fairfax County Police arrested a man for not wearing clothes in his house while he made coffee, set up an eye doctor on a gambling charge and then used the SWAT team to kill him. An investigation into the charge that the Doctor’s primary clients were cops has never been investigated. The police gunned down an emotionally unstable man because cop who shot him wrongly assumed the man was trying to escape. He wasn’t. The cops also shot dead four other citizens under highly questionable circumstances. The department under Rhorer was sued multiple times by citizens. So did they fire Rhorer? Naw they promoted him. According to news reports Rhorer draws a salary of $191,168 per year as Deputy Fairfax County Executive as well as a concurrent pension from the Fairfax County police of $173000 per year.

Occupation by force

According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, nearly one in five Fairfax residents (17.5 percent) is of Asian descent while Hispanics make up nearly 16 percent of Fairfax’s overall population. Those numbers drop considerably when applied to the Fairfax County Police Department, where only 4.3 percent of officers are Asian and 4.1 percent Hispanic. White officers make up 84 percent of Fairfax County’s 1,360-member police department, significantly higher than the county’s general population (54 percent white). Almost 90% of the force lives outside the county.