You're just going to have to forgive me if I seem a bit pissed off today, but I am. I am a bit perturbed at our local media outlets for their handling of a particular incident that occurred yesterday.
A college district police aide was shot yesterday while attempting to thwart a pair of car thieves in a college parking lot. This police aide went well beyond what a police aide is expected to do in this situation, and I sincerely hope he recovers fully, keeps his obvious driven attitude, and goes on to become a police officer someday. This kid is a benefit to our profession.
What pissed me off was the way it was handled on the news. A police aide is a student who is interested in law enforcement. It is a job that is available to students to allow them to make a bit of money while they are in school, and to further themselves in their pursuit of a law enforcement career. A police aide generally writes parking tickets and assists students on campus with minor law enforcement matters. A police aide is not a police officer, but so what?!?!
This incident warranted a search effort by more than fifty officers from six agencies to locate the suspects. Officers were on the scene for HOURS looking for these scumbags. SWAT, K9's, foot searches, two helicopters.
The news accurately reported that the person who was shot was an employee of the campus police department. They said "Student Police Cadet". Do you know how much air time this was deemed "worthy" of? Fifteen seconds. FIFTEEN GODDAMNED SECONDS!!
If it had been a normal student, the media would have been in a frenzy. It would be like the next freakin' Columbine or Virginia Tech. You would never hear the end of how the poor student was shot on campus. But no, this person was employed by a police department. Even though the police aide is not expected to step into such situations, and this police aide went the extra mile... hell, the extra HUNDRED miles to try and stop these assholes from stealing a car. He did more than he had to, and got shot for it. And all he got was fifteen seconds. Come on Channel 5, you can do better than that!
The media will not hesitate for one second to come down on us like a hammer when we are even ACCUSED of any wrongdoing. But when one of ours is the victim of a crime, they appear not to care. Believe me, I am going to contact them and let them know how I really feel too, because I doubt any of them read this blog.
This is just SO much bullshit.
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1 comment:
I know what you mean.
An officer up here was forced to shoot after the driver of a vehicle turned the vehicle on him and hit him. The criminal was high on drugs and drunk as a skunk and had no DL. The officer was a 20 yr veteran on the force. And what did the news focus on? Was the officer right to shoot that man...the criminal even suid the officer for the loss of his eye as the bullet got him in the head. And then the media at trial time decides to slander the officer's name on the news, trying to make him look bad. He was doing his job!!!!! He stopped that man from killing innocent children as they were getting off school at that exact time when this high/drunk man was speeding down the streets. Oh, the media would have sung a different tune alright if innocent children had been hit/killed.
I get really tired of the media's portrayal of us officers. They do all they can to make us look like we don't know what we are doing and that we are not doing our job correctly. They have no clue what it is like out there on the streets!
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