BlogWonks

Note from Alan Korwin: Personal friend and first-rate writer and columnist Craig Cantoni has been turning out Page-Nine worthy articles for years, and with his permission, the Uninvited Ombudsman plan to run and post some in coming months.

Craig does not pull punches, so you may find your ox skewered by his piercing wit and insights. Yes, my metaphor is mixed, but you will find his reasoning anything but mixed up.

By Craig J. Cantoni
October 2006

Call me a curmudgeon, a crank, a moron or something worse, but I don’t understand why a police officer’s death is bigger news than John Q. Citizen’s death.

A case in point: A Tempe, Ariz. police officer died on his way home from work on Sept. 27, when his police motorcycle hit construction debris. The same day, a motorist on his way to work was involved in an accident on another metro Phoenix freeway. When he got out of his mangled car, a tractor-trailer truck ran over him.

Both were tragedies for the individuals and their families, and we should feel sorrow and empathy for their loss. But both deaths were reported quite differently by the local media.

For example, the local FOX News station led with the police officer’s death on its 5:00 p.m. news. For five minutes — which is an eternity for local news — it covered the story as if the young officer had been a hero and died a heroic death. Included were interviews with coworkers and friends, and pictures of police motorcycles outside of the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

At the end of the segment, a passing mention was made that the officer struck the construction debris after he had taken a short cut by driving around barricades on a closed freeway access ramp.

The same station spent only 15 seconds reporting the death of the citizen run over by the truck. The brief segment didn’t include interviews with coworkers and friends, or pictures of family members at the hospital.

The next day, the Arizona Republic ran a 50-column inch story on the police officer’s death, including a way to make donations to the unmarried officer’s family and to post condolences on an online message board. There was no mention about the officer going around the barricades.

There also was no story about the citizen hit by the truck. But it’s a safe guess that the citizen did not have a generous pension, medical insurance or death benefits. Nor will he be buried with bagpipes playing and rifles firing salutes.

Three days after the officer died, the local media is still covering his death.

It is said that police officers are in a dangerous occupation and thus deserve special recognition, regardless of their motives or how they die. But policing does not rank in the top ten riskiest occupations.

Timber cutters, who rank No. 1, risk their lives to provide us with wood products. Fishers, who rank No. 2, risk their lives to provide us with fish. And in descending order of risk, the rest of the top ten is as follows: pilots and navigators, structural metal workers, route sales workers, roofers, electrical power installers, farmers, construction laborers, and truck drivers — all of whom risk their lives to provide us with essential goods and services.

The difference, some say, is that police officers run the risk of being shot in carrying out their job duties. That’s a good point, but it’s also a point that can be made about taxi drivers and convenience store clerks, few of whom have rich benefits or get 50 column-inches of coverage when they die in the line of duty.

Some police officers chose their line of work because they want to help people. Some like the job security and opportunity for early retirement. Some are macho jerks with high needs for status, power and authority. And a few do risk their lives to save others and deserve to be called heroes. To treat all cops as heroes though is an insult to the ones who are true heroes.

But what do I know? I’m a curmudgeon, crank, moron or whatever other insult you want to throw at me for having the temerity to question why a police officer’s tragic death is more important than the equally tragic death of John Q. Citizen.

An author and columnist, Mr. Cantoni can be reached at ccan2@aol.com.

Visit his website dedicated to stopping government theft and abuse.

Read a review of his book about government abuse, Breaking From The Herd.