Voice of American Law Enforcement Blames Media For Latest Police Murders
Retired Las Vegas Metro Police Lieutenant Randy Sutton says that the media is responsible for advocating "the war on cops by using race baiting and irresponsible journalism to paint an improper picture of the issues that law enforcement face in the line of duty everyday."
Sutton's Facebook page is a digital memorial to dozens of fallen law enforcement officers whose deaths, he claims, have gone uncovered by mainstream media. There is no shortage of comments from supporters, law enforcement and civilians alike, that believe in Sutton's cause of bringing awareness to the lives lost in the line of duty. Many police officers that support Randy Sutton refer to him as the Voice of American Law Enforcement.
In a telephone interview with Sutton, he paints a strong argument. He brings up events at the end of August as his basis for saying "there is a mediafueled war on law enforcement." On August 29, 2015, an unprovoked gunman gunned down Harris County deputy Darren H. Goforth outside a gas station in Texas. On August 28, a Missouri Highway Patrol trooper was found dead after a thus far unexplained accident while
following a motorcycle. The same day a Utah Highway Patrol trooper was shot several times as he turned to walk back to his patrol car after a routine traffic stop. According to Officer Down Memorial Page, there have been 82 members of law enforcement who have died in the line of duty in 2015 alone. By comparison, The Washington Post claims that police killed 24 unarmed black men in the same time frame.
According to Sutton, none of the incidents involving the death of law enforcement officers have received any nationwide coverage in the news, while the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, who Sutton boldly states had both been previously charged or convicted of felonies, received nationwide media coverage and whose funerals were even visited by President Barrack Obama and other representatives of the White House. Sutton agrees that training police to better handle the high pressure situations where unarmed civilians are killed needs to be addressed, discussed, and rectified immediately, but that the reporting of how many police are killed in these similar situations needs to be given the same coverage and attention from the media and civil leaders to give an accurate picture to the public and not create unnecessary hostility against members of law enforcement as a whole.
Hearing the cries of frustration from the families, friends and fellow members of the law enforcement community, Randy Sutton turned to Facebook to create an open video letter directly asking President Obama why he had not attended any police officers funerals or sent any White House representatives like his administration did for the alleged criminals killed in the same timeframe. The video contains an audio clip of the actual radio conversation between police and a dispatcher at the exact moment Hayward, CA Police Department's Sergeant Scott Lunger was killed. "Sergeant Lunger is down," exclaims a fellow officer who was on the scene in the clip.
In his video, Randy Sutton calls on President Obama and the media to stop dividing the country over race and to help project an accurate picture of what law enforcement does to maintain the fabric of society. Of the fallen officers like Sergent Lunder Randy Sutton says to the President, "it is time to stand with him."
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vito-glazers/voice-of-american-law-enf_b_8065916.html
By Vito Glazers (Huffington Post)