Something that has been bugging me this week....

This post is taking a break from writing about the usual Crohn's or surgery related things to complain about something that makes me slightly ashamed to be a part of the community that I am about to rip on.

Over the weekend, a very tragic thing happened. 4 uniformed Lakewood Police officers were sitting in a coffee shop, getting ready to get back out to protecting our streets, when a gunman came in and opened fire directly on them, killing all 4 of them. These 4 brave individuals did nothing but try to keep our streets safe for us, and were murdered in cold blood by some lunitic. My thoughts go out to the families of these brave individuals that gave their lives to keep us safe.

Immediately after the incident, a MASSIVE manhunt went underway to find the suspect in this tragic event and bring him to justice. I applaud the work of the Law Enforcement agencies across Western Washington for their efforts to get this man off the streets. Someone that can step up and shoot directly at 4 officers can not be described as stable. Personally I find it unfortunate that the suspect was killed before he could see his day in court, but that is a personal opinion on the situation. And that leads me to the issue that I have with some of my colleuges in this situation.

Monday morining, I woke up and turned on the news as I always do, (I will not disclose what channel I was watching as I have already addressed this with that station and don't feel the need to discredit them further) and as to be expected it was mostly about the Fallen Officers and the manhunt for the suspect. At this point they had the name of the top suspect, Maurice Clemens, and were broadcasting his name and photo in an effort to ade officers in finding this suspect. I absolutely don't have a problem with this, I think its a great idea that they ade the search in any way they can without compromising it.

Where I have an issue is in their inability to keep their opinions out of the news. All morning, all I heard was "Cop Killer Maruice Clemens" or "Murder Marice Clemens." I'm sorry... but when did he get in front of a judge and get sentanced as a murder?

Now, I know out justice system is flawed. Hell, just look at this case and you can see where some of the flaws are. A multiple time fellon had his sentance commuted by then Gov. Huckabee, had a parole condition that was a No Bail Hold if detained that was removed for no logical reason, only to be put back in place AFTER he bonded out in a case where he assaulted someone and was suspect in a rape. But it is our justice system, and we pride ourselves as a nation on bringing people to justice in front of a jury of thier peers. It's flawed, but it is what we have.

Now the News is suppose to be a broadcast of the facts, unless otherwise stated as an opinion. Being that this man never had his proper day in court, how can the media say he was a murderer. Suspected Cop Killer, Suspected Murder, Suspected Gunman... Absolutely we can say that. But he never had his day in court, so how can the members of the media label him anything but?

Personally, in my opinion from what I have seen, I think he absolutely did it. But that is my opinion. I would never broadcast that and try to pass it off as fact until he has been brought to proper justice.

The media does a lot of good in this society, but some things I can't help but be slightly ashamed that I decided to get into this business. All I can do it do my job with intregity and hope that my peers take notice and start doing the same.

Stay Safe! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

-D