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Johnson: Believe me, officer, we know who good guy
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Johnson: Believe me, officer, we know who good guys are
July 24, 2002
He is, I think, overreacting just a bit.
Yet it could hardly be a better time to address what he brings up. Our children, indeed, are under attack. The scum who've scurried out to approach, harm and in some cases murder young kids in this country in recent weeks have shaken my moral opposition to the death penalty.
He is a cop in the metro area, and he said he'd share what happened only if I'd keep him anonymous. I made the deal.
A police officer for 15 years, he was standing in a grocery store line when it happened. I'll let him start the story.
"It wasn't a day where I was part of the investigation of a high-profile case. Nor did anyone physically harm me, or anyone I know," he said.
His co-workers and partners, he added, are proud of the work they do, have worked hard to get where they are, and most could not think of doing anything else.
"We do it," he said, "because it is who we are. Except for days like today."
He was standing in the line behind a woman with two children. He was in uniform, minding his business, "but watching," he said.
The kids were about, oh, 10 and 12. "Old enough to understand. They were being somewhat obnoxious. You know, we've all seen them."
They wouldn't stop touching things, bickering between themselves - basically just being kids," he said. And then, it happened.
"Their mother looked at them, pointed to me, and said, 'Do you see that man? If you don't behave, that policeman will take you away!' "
He nearly lost it. Maybe it was the timing. They'd just found the nude body of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion, strangled and sexually assaulted, in Lake Elsinore, Calif.
A man attempting to drag away a young Boulder County girl had been thwarted when she twisted away and ran free. Add the abducted girls in Salt Lake City and Milwaukee. And they're still searching a Grand Junction dump for the body of 6-year-old Abby Blagg.
Every day, it seems, we hear of a child somewhere in this country being snatched by a stranger, by someone who looks like no one. In Philadelphia on Tuesday, a 7-year-old girl was rescued 22 hours after being snatched off a busy street corner.
What responsible parent hasn't these days spoken with their kids of stranger-danger, of screaming and running away if they are approached?
Here, though, is where I think the officer goes a little off base. But I get his point. I think he was directing this at you, more than just me.
"That woman, like many others," he said, "is teaching her children to be afraid of the one group of people they shouldn't be - police officers.
"I can't help but think that now, any time these kids see a police officer, they will be afraid of him or her. Rather than feel they can approach the officer, they will develop hatred and fear of the one person they should feel is safe."
What that mother said, my guess is, was some strange cry for help. She probably figured the cop for nodding and going along, saying something to scare the kids into obeying.
Indeed, what did he do?
"I was dumbfounded when she said what she did," he said. "I didn't know what to say, and rather than make a scene by correcting her, I walked away. Heartbroken."
He believes everything he has worked for all these years was made worthless by that woman, that she has scarred her kids, perhaps for the rest of their lives.
"We in law enforcement," he said, "continue to go to work every day because we love our profession. And, hopefully, someone out there realizes that we are there to help."
C'mon, pal. Anyone who has read a newspaper or flipped on the news knows that now, more than ever.
And those of us with children, in particular, know we need you now, more than ever.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_1283132,00.html
Bill Johnson's column appears Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Call him at (303) 892-2763 or e-mail him at johnsonw@RockyMountainNews.com.
MORE JOHNSON COLUMNS ?
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
July 24, 2002
He is, I think, overreacting just a bit.
Yet it could hardly be a better time to address what he brings up. Our children, indeed, are under attack. The scum who've scurried out to approach, harm and in some cases murder young kids in this country in recent weeks have shaken my moral opposition to the death penalty.
He is a cop in the metro area, and he said he'd share what happened only if I'd keep him anonymous. I made the deal.
A police officer for 15 years, he was standing in a grocery store line when it happened. I'll let him start the story.
"It wasn't a day where I was part of the investigation of a high-profile case. Nor did anyone physically harm me, or anyone I know," he said.
His co-workers and partners, he added, are proud of the work they do, have worked hard to get where they are, and most could not think of doing anything else.
"We do it," he said, "because it is who we are. Except for days like today."
He was standing in the line behind a woman with two children. He was in uniform, minding his business, "but watching," he said.
The kids were about, oh, 10 and 12. "Old enough to understand. They were being somewhat obnoxious. You know, we've all seen them."
They wouldn't stop touching things, bickering between themselves - basically just being kids," he said. And then, it happened.
"Their mother looked at them, pointed to me, and said, 'Do you see that man? If you don't behave, that policeman will take you away!' "
He nearly lost it. Maybe it was the timing. They'd just found the nude body of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion, strangled and sexually assaulted, in Lake Elsinore, Calif.
A man attempting to drag away a young Boulder County girl had been thwarted when she twisted away and ran free. Add the abducted girls in Salt Lake City and Milwaukee. And they're still searching a Grand Junction dump for the body of 6-year-old Abby Blagg.
Every day, it seems, we hear of a child somewhere in this country being snatched by a stranger, by someone who looks like no one. In Philadelphia on Tuesday, a 7-year-old girl was rescued 22 hours after being snatched off a busy street corner.
What responsible parent hasn't these days spoken with their kids of stranger-danger, of screaming and running away if they are approached?
Here, though, is where I think the officer goes a little off base. But I get his point. I think he was directing this at you, more than just me.
"That woman, like many others," he said, "is teaching her children to be afraid of the one group of people they shouldn't be - police officers.
"I can't help but think that now, any time these kids see a police officer, they will be afraid of him or her. Rather than feel they can approach the officer, they will develop hatred and fear of the one person they should feel is safe."
What that mother said, my guess is, was some strange cry for help. She probably figured the cop for nodding and going along, saying something to scare the kids into obeying.
Indeed, what did he do?
"I was dumbfounded when she said what she did," he said. "I didn't know what to say, and rather than make a scene by correcting her, I walked away. Heartbroken."
He believes everything he has worked for all these years was made worthless by that woman, that she has scarred her kids, perhaps for the rest of their lives.
"We in law enforcement," he said, "continue to go to work every day because we love our profession. And, hopefully, someone out there realizes that we are there to help."
C'mon, pal. Anyone who has read a newspaper or flipped on the news knows that now, more than ever.
And those of us with children, in particular, know we need you now, more than ever.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_1283132,00.html
Bill Johnson's column appears Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Call him at (303) 892-2763 or e-mail him at johnsonw@RockyMountainNews.com.
MORE JOHNSON COLUMNS ?
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
Rugster
Edited by - Fep1990 on 07/26/2002 00:41:01
You should visit port aurthor. Little kids run away at the sight of a cop, thinking they will be taken away. Parents train their kids to be afraid of police there. Being a high crime area, wellfair community. And teenagers who were raised that way will run for no reason. You chase them, detain them, and ask them why they ran. The answer is always "Cuz I was scared." And they didn't even do anything wrong.
If I'm wrong please correct me, I won't be offended.
The sound of a 12 gauge pump clears a house fatser than Rosie O eats a Big Mac !