If you don’t want your teenage children to get roughed up by police, then teach them not to steal cars.

That’s what I would have told a group of about a dozen people who turned out at a meeting earlier this month to discuss an investigation into Lansing police officers’ use of force in arresting two teens.

For those of you not familiar with this story, let me offer you a quick recap. On this past New Year’s Eve, several Lansing police officers responded to a stolen-car call and, following a chase, stopped the car in a parking lot.

While the stolen car’s 13-year-old driver and 14-year-old passenger were pulled from the car and arrested, one of the teenage thieves received injuries at the hands of the officers and later received treatment at a hospital. Much of the encounter was captured on videotape, which naturally resulted in a great deal of media attention.

Seventeen officers were disciplined, and one, a six-year veteran of the force, was fired. Such discipline included reprimands and letters written in the officers’ personnel files.

Lansing police Chief Mark Alley admitted excessive force was used and that “we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard.”

He said if people have concerns, they should show up at a meeting and ask questions.

At one such meeting last Tuesday, only 12 people showed up and one of them had a rather interesting comment. In a Lansing State Journal story, a Lansing woman was quoted as saying, “This seems like a pretty light response to what amounts to child abuse.”

Of course, only the most unusual parent would raise his or her child to be a car thief, but if your 13-year-old child is left out free and inclined to steal a car on New Year’s Eve, I would call that its own form of child abuse.

This case raises two important issues: Parenting and policing. The mere thought of stealing a car never crossed my mind when I was 13, and I’ll bet it never crossed the minds of most of you readers. I wonder why that is?

Is it simply because most of us were lucky enough to be born into some fortunate financial circumstances? Most of us had parents who taught us that stealing cars is wrong and not to do it. Most of us also feared what punishment our parents might hand out.

On policing, we all need to realize that the police have a very difficult job. The police know car thieves are very desperate people and officers could be fired upon at any time. Is it any different that the suspects in this case were children?

In the heat of the moment, when an officer feels his or her life may be in danger, he or she is subject to the rawest instinct of self-preservation and may be inclined to use excessive force. The force used in this case was certainly excessive and the department has dealt with the incident accordingly.

I believe our police have a difficult responsibility and most of them do a good job. This is something we all need to be reminded of when incidents like this occur. The surest way we, as a community, can have a positive view of the police is to take the responsibility to make sure they don’t have to stop us for anything.

It’s easier said than done sometimes, but they are out there protecting us from parents who raise car thieves and their children.

Surely, I’m not endorsing police brutality or encouraging people to be vigilantes, but if it was my car those teens had stolen, they would hope the police caught them first.

Of course, I never would pursue a thief on my own, but I sure would want to.

Jack Flakne is the State News community columnist. Reach him at jackflak55@yahoo.com.