November 30, 2014

It must be nice to have a sympathetic press watching your back when your police officer shot an unarmed black kid and got away with it.

This was during a press conference called by the mayor to reassure the community that steps were going to be taken to train more black police officers, offer more incentives for police officers to live in the community they're policing, and more.

For the moment, we'll overlook the obvious visual of "burning Ferguson" in a side-by-side during the question and answer period, and just take a gander at this one question asked by an unnamed member of the press.

Addressing the question to Chief Jackson, the reporter asks, "Could either of you talk about the threats made against officers on the line of duty and any PTSD-type counseling and treatment been made available to some of your public officials or officers?"

Not content to stop there, said reporter then reassures Chief Jackson that "We've been out there, we've seen what's going on."

Funny thing, that. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure I didn't hear any questions about PTSD counseling for a community who watched one of those police officers gun down one of their own and then leave him uncovered in the street for 4 hours, largely because said police department was too incompetent to have a crime scene investigation team ready to roll.

I haven't heard many questions about whether Mike Brown's parents would have PTSD counseling made available to them after they were shoved away from their son's lifeless body on that hot August afternoon.

And I don't hear much in the way of questions about whether or not the citizens and protesters of Ferguson have PTSD counseling available to them after the KKK threatened to use lethal force against them.

But cops expected to do their jobs? The press worries for them. Because they're out there. They've seen what's going on.

Not really. They've seen what the cops let them see. Maybe that reporter should try watching one of the live streams to see what actually goes on.

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