The media

I am asked frequently what I think of the media and why, in general, does there appear to be animosity between the two.

I like exemplary cases.  I try to collect quick stories that capture the essence of the whole based on a simple occurrence.  The following is why I don't trust, don't like, won't work with and in general shun the media.  While I do appreciate the irony that the media that was used to attack these officers, was also the media that is being used to exonerate them, the VAST majority of the time it is one sided against us.

Dorothy Bland is the worst kind of person.  Just reading her article screams, "Don't you know you I AM!"  She is the poster child of media and academia bias.  At best, the facts, will not get in the way of her agenda at worst she is simply bereft of honesty, morality, ethics and integrity.  She didn't flinch at her attempt to destroy two officers simply doing their job.  When you read the article she wrote, she equates the two officers with the Trayvon Martin case (which did not involve law enforcement) and a number of deaths, with her being slightly inconvenienced when committing a crime!  While I wish there could be a day when she needed our aid, urgently, and we simply did not show up, which we would never do, because we don't operate in the gutter she teaches in, works in and the society she thinks she lives in.  She takes their picture for her safety (and look they don't stop her) but thank goodness they were recording her for their safety.

The link to the whole article  http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20151028-dorothy-bland-i-was-caughtwalking-while-black.ece

Her article from the Dallas Morning News Titled

Dorothy Bland: I was caught ‘walking while black.’

     Flashing lights and sirens from a police vehicle interrupted a routine Saturday morning walk in my golf-course community in Corinth.

I often walk about 3 miles near daybreak as part of my daily exercise. However, on Oct. 24, I delayed my walk until late morning as I waited for the rain to stop. I was dressed in a gray hooded “Boston” sweatshirt, black leggings, white socks, plus black-and-white Nike running shoes. Like most African-Americans, I am familiar with the phrase “driving while black,” but was I really being stopped for walking on the street in my own neighborhood?

Yes. In the words of Sal Ruibal, “Walking while black is a crime in many jurisdictions. May God have mercy on our nation.”

Knowing that the police officers are typically armed with guns and are a lot bigger than my 5 feet, 4 inches, I had no interest in my life’s story playing out like Trayvon Martin’s death. I stopped and asked the two officers if there was a problem; I don’t remember getting a decent answer before one of the officers asked me where I lived and for identification.

I remember saying something like, “Around the corner. This is my neighborhood, and I’m a taxpayer who pays a lot of taxes.” As for the I.D. question, how many Americans typically carry I.D. with them on their morning walk? Do you realize I bought the hoodie I was wearing after completing the Harvard University Institute for Management and Leadership in Education in 2014? Do you realize I have hosted gatherings for family, friends, faculty, staff and students in my home? Not once was a police officer called. To those officers, my education or property-owner status didn’t matter. One officer captured my address and date of birth.

I guess I was simply a brown face in an affluent neighborhood. I told the police I didn’t like to walk in the rain, and one of them told me, “My dog doesn’t like to walk in the rain."  Ouch!

I didn’t have my I.D., but I did have my iPhone, so I took a picture of the two police officers and the Texas license plate. One of the officers told me I should walk on the sidewalk or the other side of the street for safety’s sake.

Although I am not related to Sandra Bland, I thought about her, Freddie Gray and the dozens of others who have died while in police custody. For safety’s sake, I posted the photo of the officers on Facebook, and within hours, more than 100 Facebook friends spread the news from New York to California.

“You are now in the company of Henry Louis Gates and others with the same experience,” wrote one of my former students from Florida. “We must stop racial profiling.”

For anyone who doesn’t think racial profiling happens, I can assure you it does happen. For a sanity check, I stopped by the mayor’s house and asked him, “Do I look like a criminal?” Mayor Bill Heidemann said no and shook his head in disbelief. I appreciate the mayor being a good neighbor, but why should he need to verify that I am not a menace to society?

I refuse to let this incident ruin my life. As I was finishing my walk and listening to Urban Praise radio, I encountered an elderly white woman who asked if I would like some roses. She gave me a half-dozen roses. It was a random act of kindness and that’s why I call Janet Herbison of Gemini Peach and Rose Farm in Denton a good Samaritan. That evening I had dinner with neighbors.

The more often we talk and get to know people as humans, the stronger we will become as a nation. We are all part of the human race.

Dorothy Bland is the dean of the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism and the director for the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism at the University of North Texas. Reach Reach her at dorothy1.bland@gmail.com

Now for the Chiefs Response

ANOTHER TAKE: POLICE RESPONSE

Corinth Police Chief Debra Walthall says the encounter was about resident’s safety, not race.

I appreciate the opportunity to respond to Ms. Bland’s comments. My officers, a field training officer and his recruit, observed Ms. Bland walking in the roadway wearing earbuds and unaware that there was a pickup truck directly behind her that had to almost come to a complete stop to avoid hitting her.

The driver of the truck looked at the officers as they passed and held his hands in the air, which implied “aren’t you going to do something about this?”

The officers turned around and drove behind Ms. Bland.They activated their in-car video camera, which shows her again walking in the roadway impeding traffic. They activated their emergency lights — no siren was ever sounded — they exited their patrol vehicle and contacted Ms. Bland.
They immediately advised Ms. Bland about the pickup truck and the fact that it was safer for her to walk against traffic so she could see the cars and jump out of the way if necessary. The interaction between Ms. Bland and the officers was very cordial and brief.

Ms. Bland had been observed earlier by these same officers, but she was not in the street and impeding traffic, so she was not contacted.

Impeding traffic is a Class C misdemeanor, and it is our policy to ask for identification from people we encounter for this type violation. I am surprised by her comments as this was not a confrontational encounter but a display of professionalism and genuine concern for her safety.

Please review the video and I’m sure you will agree the officers’ intent was simply to keep her safe. Ms. Bland never contacted the police department to voice her concerns regarding this encounter and has not returned my phone message left at the number provided by the mayor.

The citizens of Corinth as a whole are a highly educated population, and it is
disappointing that one of our residents would attempt to make this a racial issue when clearly it is not.

Debra Walthall is Corinth’s chief of police. Reach her at dwalthall@cityofcorinth.com.

Watch the Video

Back to my post...

I would hope the University of North Texas re-thinks who should be director of their journalism school, if actual, open, unbiased, journalists are who they are actually attempting to educate.

Finally, a shout out to Chief Walthall for addressing this and standing tall for her officers!

The L-Word

I was telling a story at roll call and used the word "literally" about a dozen times.  The good Sargent then made note of that and told me my story was stupid (we are outside of work friends).  Later on when I was speaking with him about another matter, he used the word "literally" and I pointed that out.  Throughout the day we both noticed that everyone uses the word "literally" often.

A couple of days later, we were playing the hot or not, name game.  This game revolves around picking a name, going to Google images and betting if the first page features hot people or not.  Then it became a game to find the ugliest name.  I said, "Bertha! That is literally my grandmothers name!"  The Sargent then replied, "what instead of figuratively being named Bertha?"  (For the record I won the ugly name game).

We realized that no one was using the word for its meaning, rather it was a cue in the sentence that the punch line was coming up in the story.  Further, no one was just saying the word, but rather pausing, emphasizing it, pausing and then getting on to the good part of the sentence.  So it became a game on the shift to not use the word for any reason or it costs you a quarter.  The money will be used for pizza and beer at the end of the year.  It is much harder than you think to stop using this one word.

A couple of weeks later the Sargent and I were on a domestic trouble call.  It is a common family tragedy.  It is a older single mom, with an eighteen year old daughter in the home and a twenty year old heroin addicted son that had been kicked out of the home a few months ago.  On this day, the mother was out of the home at her workplace and her daughter was taking a shower.  While in the shower, the daughter heard a window open and the sounds of someone in the house.  She slowly, and quietly, gets out of the shower and tries to get to her cell phone.  At this time, she can see the living room couch and there is the son passed out on it.  Daughter calls mother, mother calls us, and we all meet at the house.  We wake the son up.  He starts to rise of the couch with his hands curled in fists, decides against going for it and we walking him out of the home with a bag full of clothing and a trespass warning.

I am now providing the mother and daughter with a bunch of legal and civil advice on how to handle their current situation when I say, "We literally pulled him off your front lawn two days ago and shipped him to the local hospital".  The Sargent then points and me and yells, "Ahhhhhhhhh, you said literally!!!"  I, chagrined, look at him and say, "Ah dammit!"  Now we both realize that the mother and daughter are now just staring at us, clearly wondering if we had lost our minds.  So I explained the literally game and how I didn't have to say "literally two days ago" because I never would have meant, figuratively, two days ago.  So the mother then says, "but you used the word correctly" and I tell her that it is not the point of the game, the point is that we can not use the word at all.  I said that one of the problems is that there is not a good synonym for that word.  The daughter then starts rattling off a number of words but we all agree that none how the feeling of the L-word.

So all of us walking back to each of our cars, us to our squads, them to their mini-van, with the son walking northbound in the distance, finished the call debating the L-word game.

I'm Back

I took a break from the blog for a number of reasons.

First, at my department I was going through a tough time with the administration and its really hard to write a positive police blog when you are not really positive about police work.

Second, I began a PHD program and its taken me this long to get my feet back under me with the amount of work it takes to balance, God, family, work, school, overtime and this blog.

Third, with all the negative press concerning my profession and the massive disinformation that is out there, I see a need to be a small voice for the 99% of officers going to work, saving lives and going home.

Fourth, there needs to be an outlet somewhere that captures officers as they really are, people in an absurd environment, trying their best to aid people who hate them, work with massive budget cuts (what do you mean we are out of squad cars?) and not loose their minds in the process.

So hold me accountable to post a couple times a week again and maybe in the process place a little light into the dark.

And bow ties are cool