12/15/14 Im sick to my stomach. Absolutely sick to my stomach. The awful, argumentative and often uneducated, attacking posts made by people about Ferguson or the fatal shooting of the Cleveland child with a toy gun. The closet racists are out of the closet and the every cop hates blacks person is on the attack. And now just last night we had another officer involved fatal shooting, this one in the ArkLaTex. A frantic 911 calls comes in. A homeowner says someone is banging on windows, trying to break into her home. The police race to the scene. They know time is of the essence because the reported burglar could get into the home at any moment. The homeowner tells dispatch the suspect has something that looks like a knife in his hand. Officers say repeated attempts to make him drop the weapon didnt work. They add he lunged toward them. So what would you do? Back peddle? Walk away? Put the gun away and fight with fists? Politely ask to him to stop this behavior? Tonight during a commercial break, I told our two studio cameramen to pretend I was a burglar and I was holding what looked to be a knife in my hand. They told me to drop it. I didnt. I walked closer. And closer. And closer. Guess what they did? One shot me. I then told them it wasnt a knife and that it was just a spoon. And so was the weapon last night. And it turns out the man lived across the street from this home and reportedly suffers from a mental issue. Today I heard, All that over a spoon?. And Ive read the posts on both sides of this recent shooting. I frankly feel unless youve lived it, and no Im not talking about some story your friend or cousin told you happened to them, or until you put on the uniform to know what its like to deal with each situation, we should all zip it. I dont know what its like to be profiled or harassed by police. And unless youre a police officer, you have no clue how many life threatening situations theyre in .. daily. And I can guarantee you police officers, in the few seconds or minutes theyre dealing with a suspect, have no clue if that person has been diagnosed with a mental issue. But that persons family sure does and its arguable theyve had years to help handle that issue. But sometimes theyre the first to say the police should have reacted differently because of the illness - the illness I just mentioned they likely had no knowledge of, but they did for years. My biggest challenge at work is to just keep it fair and balance, but to also do that without someone thinking Ive allowed personal beliefs to show within the words of my script. My job isnt to tell you the cops are right or the suspect was right. Its just to present the facts, fairly. And all our jobs are to listen to the facts, all of them, and not just the ones that feed your argument. If youre sitting behind a laptop reading this or posting on Facebook about it, chances are you havent been wronged by police. If you have, by all means message me what happened and Ill check out the facts and report on it. And Im confident youve never put on a police uniform. And at this rate, the number of people wanting to risks their lives for us dwindles by the day. I dont see all leaders leading. I see some purely dividing. I dont see all of the media being fair. I see some baiting. And Ive reported on numerous law enforcement whove been busted over the years for caring more for themselves than anyone else. All Im asking, is to just think. Read. Ask questions. Dont make everything about race. And dont claim it isnt about race when it clearly is. And think about what you would do if someone was coming toward you with something in their hand. Or if moments after trying to take your gun from you, a person who had also just strong armed a store clerk, was then running at you. We cant ignore the FACTS to base our stance. Facts are facts. Taser instead of gun? Lets argue that all day. Body cameras to get to the bottom of it? You betcha. But for the love of God, have enough pride to use proven facts when stating your case. Or better yet, go sign up to be a police officer and help keep our streets safe. They can always use a few more brave men and women in blue.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 06:31:35 +0000
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