So I’m watching the coverage of the murdered security guard at the Holocaust Museum and suddenly, there’s his kid. Tears in his eyes, words stuck in his throat, and hordes of microphones shoved in his face.
Ah, the media. You gotta love ’em.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a media junkie. I used to work the media and I believe in a damn near completely unfettered press because that’s the only thing watching the watchdogs. But with that freedom, I believe, comes responsibility and it’d be nice if once, just fucking once, the media would have the responsibility to NOT get in a young kid’s face less than 24 hours after his father was murdered by a lunatic white supremacist.
And while we’re talking about this dead guard, I guess my question would be why the hell didn’t he have a ballistic vest? Sure, there are lots of security guards who work quiet warehouses and gated communities who probably don’t absolutely have to have vests (though I believe anyone required to carry a gun on duty pro’ly ought’a have one…doh!), but guarding the Holocaust Museum? In D.C.? Could this guy have been anymore inadequately equipped? The place is a living, breathing bulls eye for deniers. It gets threats EVERY DAY. And you’re gonna require your security to carry guns but not give them vests? Why not just say, “You’re expendable.”
What kind of logic is that?
Well, it’s the same bit of thinking that leaves officers around the country routinely ill-equipped; calling for help on portable radios that don’t actually work, and patrolling for and then arresting bad guys with squad cars that don’t have protective barriers between the officer and the bad guy. Are you kidding me? The bad guys are bad enough that society has decided they need to be behind bars, but the officers who are taking said bad guy to jail (and who are sitting vulnerable with the bad guy right BEHIND THEM) don’t need any protection at all.
Come on, get the vests, get the radios, get the barriers. Let these guys go home alive.