This is something that just happened to me and with todays funerals and demonstrations (both in support of and against police), I felt it was appropriate to share: Today (and tomorrow... shameless plug) Im anchoring and producing our weekend newscasts. Just before 9 this evening I overheard on the police scanner reports of a shooting. Normally Id send our on-call photographer to get video, but the location the dispatcher gave is less than two blocks from the station (literally pull onto the street from our station parking lot and turn left, drive 50 yards and youre there... you could see the blue lights from the lot) so I chose to go get the video myself. The only other person in the newsroom, an editor, said hed come with me to the scene. As we jumped into the car and pulled out onto the street, not 10 feet from our car we saw a man wearing a face mask and holding a long, dark object. Now remember, all we knew at the time is that we were driving to reports of a shooting and that it was supposed to be right around the corner. As the man in the mask proceeded to point the object toward our car (and as my stomach quickly made its way into my throat), it broke into the light of a street lamp and we realized it was, in fact, a leaf blower in his hand. However, in those 3 seconds between noticing the man in the mask and recognizing what it was he was actually carrying, both the editor and myself thought it was a gun and that we were in serious danger. Now, to my point: I am not taking sides on any of the recent issues of police vs civilian violence... BUT, our law enforcement officers are trained to shoot if they believe their lives are in immediate danger. While I am not trained to spot certain things like they are, I promise you, I was convinced I was in serious danger in that moment and I dont know how I would have acted to protect myself had I been armed. Why this man chose to wear a mask and use his leaf blower at 9 p.m. in the dark is none of my business. But that experience truly gave me an inside look on how difficult it can be to tell the difference between a weapon that is going to kill me and a harmless gardening tool. So, my message to all of you who have made it this far into this story: think twice before immediately jumping to conclusions about any officer involved shooting. Yes, those who abuse their power must be held responsible. But it can be much harder than you think to make the correct decision in that split second. For those of you wondering about the shooting, by the way, it turned out to be a false alarm.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 03:10:40 +0000
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