Every day something happens in the world that is noteworthy, but not all of it gets reported for one reason or another. Recently, that is within the past 20 years, the Fourth Estate seems to have lost its objectivity. My own political leanings notwithstanding, the media has slowly but surely been taken over by commentators rather than reporters. The so-called “mainstream media” used to have people that read the news, gave us the weather and the latest in sports scores…and that was it. Now, those same reporters have become pundits for the most part and slant the news that they talk about. Why is this so? Perhaps some of the used-to-be “stars” of news-casting believed they needed more air time, more money or more prestige and so they began to make comments about what they’d just reported…and so it was started. What we have now, in my not-so-humble opinion, is the media on one side and the truth of the matter on the other.
When I was a schoolboy we had visits from members of the different types of people we might see in our daily lives. There was a policeman, who was usually called Officer Friendly, and who could be depended upon to do the right thing whether it was counseling a hooky-playing kid, or being someone to whom you could tell your worst fears and they’d help you through the ordeal somehow. I remember a fireman(that’s what they called them back then) who showed up in full regalia and explained what each piece of his equipment did. Nowadays I doubt if you could let a firefighter into a school carrying an axe. We had mailmen(again an ancient term) who would explain to us how the system worked and showed us how a letter might get from New York to Los Angeles or, it might end up in the dead letter office, never to be delivered. There were doctors, dentists, druggists, and several others, all men and women that we might see in our day to day living. That was then…this is now.
Recently in Chicago, where mayhem seems to be part of the daily routine for many of its citizens, a birthday party was interrupted. A 4-year-old boy, TJ Broswell, was celebrating his birthday when something happened…something that most people would consider a horrible crime. The house in which the party was being held was broken into, and a large group of men pushed their way into the home and began, literally, to tear the place apart! They used battering rams to gain entry to the house and then, once inside, used sledgehammers to open and crush some of the furniture. Chicago hasn’t been a “good city” in my estimation, for a long time, but when you have the POLICE break into a home, raiding the little boy’s birthday party based entirely on bad information and over alleged MDMA pills, which they NEVER found, that’s beyond awful…WAY beyond.
The innocent family said when cops battered down the door, they thought they were being robbed. Cops came in, pointed guns at everyone, including tiny children and began demanding everyone get down. The sister of the birthday boy said that the police were using foul language when yelling at the attendees. When the police gained entry, they had no problem throwing innocent people around, including children and terrorizing them with threats and guns. One lady asked if they had a warrant and her answer was to be thrown outside in freezing temperatures. The sister also said that she was sure she would be shot. The officers even smashed the 4-year-old’s cake and threw it on the floor. So much for Officer Friendly.
Now, imagine this, you walk into the living room of your home and see what clearly is a rape in progress. According to police, Richard Adams walked into the living room of the home and saw the 17-year-old on top of the child with the child’s pants around his ankles. Adams said he immediately yelled for someone to call the police, but felt compelled to step in and stop what he saw going on. Because of a similar incident in which he was the victim, he knew he had to do something to stop this rape. As it happened, when the police finally arrived, they arrested both the rapist AND Adams, charging him with assault and battery. You, reading this, are probably wondering why the police charged Adams, right? By whatever moral standards are applied here, Adams should have been a hero, but it didn’t work out that way. What was Adams supposed to do when he saw a 17-year-old raping a tiny child? Was he simply supposed to yell “stop” and then wait 15-20 minutes for the police to show up? At what point do you stop fighting with someone when you catch them raping a child? The Eastlake, Ohio, police department issued a statement after many people demanded Adams’ exoneration. If Richard Adams is convicted of the charges against him he could be facing up to 8 years in prison. Again, so much for Officer Friendly.
Parting shot: It is a convoluted world in which we live today, so much so that whatever one says, on any subject, can be recorded and used against them many years down the road. George Orwell would be astonished at how accurate his “1984” is today.
