Have you ever seen a news story reported and tell yourself ‘okay I heard it but I’m not going to comment on it?’ I swear for the last week I’ve been trying to keep my mouth closed as I watch the news coverage of the shooting deaths of two officers in near by Harford County. Today was the funeral for the first officer and as My local CBS news facebook page flooded My time line with post after post one caught My eye and sparked the need for Me to finally speak. The media has been reporting this story in such a way to sensationalize it and it’s getting out of control. My local CBS affiliate posted 15 updates on it’s facebook page in a 12 hour period relating to the slain officers. During those 12 hours only FOUR other news posts were made not relating to the officers.
Above is the statement from Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler during the funeral of slain Snr. Deputy Pat Dailey today. It was the one that made Me say enough! I said to myself and on the CBS news post “can be boiled down to “He gave his life doing his job” protecting and serving R.I.P. “to treat a man kindly that he didn’t know” that’s an act of heroism in 2016??? I thought that was normal and common practice especially for civil servants” and My notifications went crazy. I was personally attacked and called everything but a child of God.
I don’t care what they called me because it had to be said and so does the rest of what I have to say today. See I’ve sat quiet because I can understand the devastation to the Harford County community. This is a small tight knit community where every one knows every one. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who wasn’t personally affected by these deaths. This is a community where no law enforcement officer has been shot or killed violently in the line of duty in over 100 years. Trust me, we understand. But the fact that people are trying to use the deaths of these officers to make them martyrs is taking it too far.
I don’t blame the people of Harford County for being sensitive, the wound is still fresh. But they have to open their eyes and see how people are trying to use the deaths of these officers to start a much bigger issue. No one is insensitive to the tragedy that occurred but this is a local tragedy, not a national one. Some people don’t seem to understand that and have tried to make it much more political.
Last week six officers were killed in the line of duty across the united states. Not one was by a terrorist attack or an ambush on police in an anti police gesture.
But that hasn’t stopped some from finding a reason to blame politics and President Obama. Carroll County Sheriff Jim DeWees decided instead of taking the time to mourn his fallen brother or reaching out to support the families, he would attack President Obama. Huh? The sheriff posted an open letter to President Obama on his personal facebook page. His letter stressed the sheriff’s frustration that President Obama hasn’t spoken publicly about the shooting deaths of the deputies. His letter was shared on facebook overr 20,000 times.
His inflammatory speech in the letter is appalling. This sworn officer of the law actually publicly compared a criminal with open warrants shooting an officer to an officer, without provocation shooting INNOCENT man. His words not Mine.
I quote
“When my president doesn’t take the time to openly recognize the sacrifices that brave men & women of law enforcement make each day to keep domestic peace, I’m disappointed! I suspect that if these same deputies walked in to a restaurant, and without provocation shot and killed an innocent man, you and your staff would quickly whisk their family away to Washington for a future speech to make an example of police officers nationwide.”
How is a cop shooting an unarmed man without provocation in any way related to what happened? How is that anything like a person with a criminal past, a history of assaulting police and open warrants shooting a cop? I don’t see any similarity. An innocent man should never be shot by the police. What would you expect a known criminal to do but commit crime? Is this how our sworn officers of the law think? No wonder so many unarmed men are shot every day, as Sheriff DeWees sees it, they’re the same as the common criminal.
President Obama has spoken out may times on the hardships law enforcement officers face in their daily duties. In May 2015 he spoke on the topic during his appearance at the National Law Enforcement Memorial. In September 2015 he spoke again at the Congressional Black Caucus Awards Dinner on the subject saying that the targeting of police officers is “unacceptable and an affront to civilized society” Us civilized Americans agree with him. We ALSO know the difference between innocent officers being attacked/ambushed unsuspectingly and an officer being killed in the line of duty.
Cops have been injured and/or killed in the line of duty ever since there was a need for law enforcement. If criminals willingly surrendered officers would have lollipops in their holsters instead of guns.
While President Obama has not personally spoken out about the tragedies, his Attorney General has. I guess her position is not high enough for Sheriff DeWees for the sheriff to acknowledge that the President’s administration has spoken on it. Attorney General Loretta Lynch spoke on the deaths Thursday, February 11, one day after the shooting death of the two deputies. She met with the Major County Sheriff’s Association. The meeting not only started with a moment of silence for the slain officers but she followed it up by speaking on how the murders highlight the danger officers face every day. She also remarked on their courage and commitment.
The National Fraternal Order of Police president, Chuck Canterbury took it FIVE steps further than Sheriff Dewees when he TOO fired off a letter to President Obama last week. His letter asks the administration to consider violence against police and anti police rhetoric a ‘hate crime.’ While making his impassioned plea he managed to also bring Baltimore and the unrest last year after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody into the picture. He quoted Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake who was drug through the mud in the media after proclaiming the looters should be given “room to destroy”
He said
“Elected officials are quick to console the families of the fallen and praise us for the difficult and dangerous work that we do every day. Yet, too many are silent when the hate speech floods the media with calls for violence against police or demands that police stand down and give them “room to destroy.”
He went on to say
“The violence will not end until the rhetoric does which is why I have called on Congress and your Administration to work with us to address the surge of violence against police by expanding the Federal hate crimes law to protect police. We must stand up and reject, completely and without qualification, the use of violence, terror and hate as an instrument of social change.”
So um, are cops going to turn in their guns and stop their anti -people rhetoric? Is any person who says something negative about police supposed to be arrested for a hate crime? What about the First Amendment? He is calling for anti police speech to be a crime. What about all the cops on trial or in jail for shooting innocent and/or unarmed citizens. What about the officer placed on leave last week for making fun of the suicide of the Black Lives Matters protester? What about the Baltimore cop just demoted for attacking a 17 year old child online? Will we have to watch more police executions of unarmed men and women in the street in exchange for this law?
According to Sheriff DeWees they’re the same as the common criminal anyway right?
