Consider big picture when judging officer who spewed profanity

This is not a criticism of Scott Maxwell’s Sunday column, “Rotten acts giving good OPD cops a bad name.” Rather, I feel the need to fill in key omissions.

There is no place in a law-enforcement officer’s world for hatred, bigotry or unprofessionalism. Sometimes we can be compromised by the stressors of the job, and it can affect how we view the world. It’s not uncommon, but of course some are better than others at controlling the effects of these stressors in our day-today interactions.

Take the comments that were the subject of Maxwell’s column: Orlando Police Officer Robert Schellhorn’s name-calling of an individual defending NFL players’ kneeling during the national anthem and an activist who was killed while protesting a Nazi rally in Virginia.

Now consider that these comments were made the day after the killing of six police officers around the U.S. within hours of each other — two from Kissimmee. This same officer — Schellhorn — was one of the first to arrive at Orlando Police Lt. Debra Clayton’s side immediately following her fatal shooting last year. He attempted CPR to try to save her life.

Although we can agree his inappropriate name-calling was wrong and unprofessional, it’s not difficult to see how a cop’s judgment can be affected. But this commentary is not about how difficult, dangerous and stressful working in law enforcement can be. This is about the way the media in general are complicit in vilifying law enforcement. And when I say complicit, I mean mostly responsible.

Let’s be real. News is a business: A cop helping a stranded motorist or mentoring a child will never beat a story of a police-involved shooting. The media, in an attempt to increase viewership or readership, will change the focus of the policeinvolved contact.

For example, why is the race of the officer and the race of the subject key to the story, and not the details of the crime?

I also find interesting the obvious and unfair ratio of reporting cop wrongdoings versus reporting the thousands of wonderful examples of community service and heroism that occur daily. And the mysterious lack of statistical data would seem to confirm the media’s baseless character war against law enforcement.

Millions of contacts per day with the public are overwhelmingly positive and law-abiding. Claims of police disproportionately killing minorities is just not true. So why are there so many cop haters?

It’s simple: The media — social or otherwise — have tainted the truth to sell a product. Most people won’t take the time to fact-check, which results in what you hear and see every day when you read or watch the news. A few bad officers equal “a broken system,” “a runaway train of injustice.”

This is the real lie. Unfortunately, we all know that people will believe anything they are told early and often.