Postal workers are human, too
It was only a few weeks ago we discovered that traffic laws are merely guidelines, at least when the police are driving. This morning we received another lesson in just how elite the police have become in San Diego’s newspapers.
On Friday, Los Angeles police officer Guillermo de la Cruz went nuts after breaking up with El Cajon officer Patty Garcia. He shot his ex-girlfriend and her friend, El Cajon officer Mark Amato, and then committed suicide.
If the killer had been a postal worker, we know what would’ve been reported. But not in this case. We haven’t heard any wailing about an epidemic of gun violence; there have been no calls to make it harder for police to buy firearms. The gun wasn’t given a life of it’s own and blamed for the tragedy, nor were police officers in general demonized.
No, this killing was merely a reminder that “police officers are human beings like everybody else”.
I don’t know about you, but most of my friends are human beings, all of them have had failed love affairs, and none of them have ever shot or killed anyone.
Can you imagine your local postmaster, after another worker goes postal, saying, “well, postal workers are human beings just like everyone else”, and getting away with it? The press would have his hide, and rightfully so. Going nuts and killing people because your girlfriend dumped you is hardly normal behavior.
The words “crazed” and “gunman” and “assault”, mainstays in similar stories that don’t involve police officers, never appeared in the San Diego Union Tribune article (p. B1). Instead, we find that it was “the frustration and pain of a failed love relationship” that “pushed” officer de la Cruz to shoot his ex and her friend.
I’m a little worried about the state of mind of the Tribune staff writers. Reporter Maria Hunt never questioned whether or not this is in fact normal human behavior. Whoever wrote the headlines put the “Police officers are human beings” quote right into the headline with no apparent sarcasm. Is this the way we can expect Tribune reporters to act in the future?
I think I’d be very careful if I were dating a Union-Tribune employee. I might even want to buy a gun.
More San Diego
- San Diego: 5th Avenue Books and Bluestocking Books
- Facing each other across Fifth Avenue in Hillcrest, these two great bookstores complement each other well.
- San Diego, California: Footnote Books
- A crowded, tiny bookstore off the edge of Hillcrest in San Diego, this is a very good bookstore with very little space.
- Two Seasons of San Diego
- A couple of weeks ago, in San Diego’s wonderfully sunny September, I posted a photo looking over the canyon. Here is a similar photo from yesterday morning, showing our other season. September was Sunny & Mild, we are now in Misty & Mild. We do, technically, have a rainy season, but our rainy season is mostly Sunny & Mild.
- Why isn’t Bob Filner resigning?
- Because he thinks he can get away with it—and chances are, he’s right. The watchdog media becomes a lapdog media where Democrats are concerned, especially when those Democrats are in contested areas.
- Carl DeMaio talks about expanding the San Diego Convention Center
- Looks like San Diego city councilman Carl DeMaio is backing an expansion of the convention center to ensure that Comic-Con stays in San Diego. The anchor, who I can’t pick out of the Channel 6 line-up, mentions both Anaheim and Vegas as places that would like to entice the convention away.
- 10 more pages with the topic San Diego, and other related pages