Letter To Editor: Off Duty Officer Points Gun Story Inflammatory

BROOKLINE, MA — The following is a letter to the editor submitted to Patch from a Town Meeting Member, who is also a Brookline Police Officer, about the series of stories Patch wrote regarding the off duty Brookline Police Officer who pointed a gun at two men in the middle of Route 9, this month.

• Man Points Gun At Man In Chestnut Hill, Police Get Multiple Calls
• Race Debate Reignites After Off-Duty Cop Draws Gun On Unarmed Men
• Man, Hands Up, Asked Person Nearby To Call 911: Witness

To the Editor,

I have a question regarding the title of your article “Race Debate Reignited After Off-Duty Cop Draws Gun on Unarmed Men.” Really? You were breaking the story, where was the debate already "reignited," except by you with that title? You weren’t reporting news with that headline, you were trying to create it. You framed this incident as a race issue without having any information to know if race indeed was a factor. Then, two days later you published an article titled "Man, hands up, begged officer not to shoot.” You were then contacted by the witness who told you she never in fact heard the man say what she was quoted as hearing. Despite now knowing that the information you published was untrue, you updated the article and chose to keep the false information in the story.

As a resident and elected town meeting member who relies on your paper for local news, I find both of these articles to be misleading, irresponsible and sensationalized journalism. Extremely disappointing, divisive and inflammatory.

The national conversation on race and policing is an important one, and one I have followed closely as I have been very active in community policing for two decades as a police officer in our Town. This incident being labeled as a race issue simply because the officer is white and the driver black is negligent on your paper’s behalf. Until further investigation can determine whether or not race was an issue, it’s inflammatory and divisive and will tear at the fabric of our community - for what purpose? Because it sells? You have kept information in an article that you know is false, editing it two times and more prominently featuring the information known to be untrue. The witness you quoted told you she never heard the man begging for his life and pleading not to be shot. You should have rewritten the entire article when she clarified that. Be better than this, please, for the sake of our community. We deserve better.

The current national climate between police and people of color is as much what it is not simply because of the actions of law enforcement, or the actions of people of color, but because of what media sources likes yours are doing to conflate and contrive this climate without justification. Cops are getting shot and/or killed in this country nearly every day and your paper is inciting further anger and hostility toward them with this false information. Shame on you.

Sincerely,

Casey Hatchett

Brookline Town Meeting Member, Precinct 12

Brookline Commission for Women, Co-Chair

File Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch