08-27-2009, 12:55 AM
Good reading from the Palm Beach Post.
EDITORIAL: How to protect and serve
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Some law enforcement officers give a bad name to the rest.
Think of the two in West Palm Beach who were videotaped last year beating up a handcuffed suspect. Although the city fired them, an arbitrator last week ordered the city to rehire one.
Or think of Brent Raban, the Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy who called himself "The Punisher' and was demoted last month after bragging about beating up suspects.
But as we saw again this week, the first sentence of this editorial needs to be a little longer: Some law enforcement officers give a bad name to the rest, who don't deserve it.
Just before 4:30 on Tuesday morning, Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy Stephen Miller, who works the midnight shift, noticed smoke. When he tracked it down to a home west of Palm Beach Gardens, he found a garage in flames. Deputy Miller pounded on the door, alerting Ann Cochran, her son Ray Cochran and grandson Brian Bristow. The three got out before the fire spread to the house and destroyed it. The sheriff's office told The Post that deputy Miller would prefer not to talk about his heroics.
In another instance, two Riviera Beach detectives, Sgt. Pat Galligan and Jeremy Summers, made sure that a homeless Vietnam veteran, Gary Dale Wilson, got the funeral and military honors he deserved. Mr. Wilson was known in the area because he sought treatment for terminal throat cancer at the VA Medical Center and did odd jobs around St. George's Church and Community Center. He died in the spring, apparently of cancer, at a camp in the woods. When no one claimed the body, Detectives Galligan and Summers made sure that he was buried at the South Florida National Cemetery, with an honor guard.
The good that most officers do can make news less often than the bad that a few do. These three made news the right way.
EDITORIAL: How to protect and serve
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Some law enforcement officers give a bad name to the rest.
Think of the two in West Palm Beach who were videotaped last year beating up a handcuffed suspect. Although the city fired them, an arbitrator last week ordered the city to rehire one.
Or think of Brent Raban, the Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy who called himself "The Punisher' and was demoted last month after bragging about beating up suspects.
But as we saw again this week, the first sentence of this editorial needs to be a little longer: Some law enforcement officers give a bad name to the rest, who don't deserve it.
Just before 4:30 on Tuesday morning, Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy Stephen Miller, who works the midnight shift, noticed smoke. When he tracked it down to a home west of Palm Beach Gardens, he found a garage in flames. Deputy Miller pounded on the door, alerting Ann Cochran, her son Ray Cochran and grandson Brian Bristow. The three got out before the fire spread to the house and destroyed it. The sheriff's office told The Post that deputy Miller would prefer not to talk about his heroics.
In another instance, two Riviera Beach detectives, Sgt. Pat Galligan and Jeremy Summers, made sure that a homeless Vietnam veteran, Gary Dale Wilson, got the funeral and military honors he deserved. Mr. Wilson was known in the area because he sought treatment for terminal throat cancer at the VA Medical Center and did odd jobs around St. George's Church and Community Center. He died in the spring, apparently of cancer, at a camp in the woods. When no one claimed the body, Detectives Galligan and Summers made sure that he was buried at the South Florida National Cemetery, with an honor guard.
The good that most officers do can make news less often than the bad that a few do. These three made news the right way.