True keystone cops

Here in the Keystone state, we have many brave police officers who serve & protect the public, sometimes paying the ultimate price. It's certainly not an easy job. The compensation is often poor. Dealing with the worst elements of society day in, day out, may cause great stress & strain, affecting an officer's life in many ways. It's generally not a profession to be made light of, but police officers are human & they do make mistakes. Occasionally, those mistakes are somewhat entertaining and, being the Keystone state, it’s hard not to think “Keystone Cops”.



Police in Robinson had a run-in with a burglar over the weekend. News reports detail officers falling in high snow, losing equipment in snow drifts & losing sight of the suspect, even though he was dressed in all black & running through a snow-covered wooded area. The burglar managed to steal a police car & wreck it during the melee, as well as eluding the police again after ditching the wrecked vehicle.


It’s hard not to read & hear some of the news reports without questioning the ability of the Robinson police force. However, more detailed reports of the incident include the fact that the suspect had a gun, held it to his while threatening to kill himself & almost ran over an officer in his attempt to escape in the police car.

As usual, it’s shame on some of our local “news” sources for alluding to police incompetence. Even some of the more detailed accounts seem to have a tongue-in-cheek aspect, almost encouraging the reader to infer ineptitude on the part of the officers. Yet nothing could be further from the truth, as anyone who has ever been in a snowstorm is well aware of the almost total lack of visibility. Anyone who’s ever walked through snow knows how difficult it is to maintain one’s balance, let alone move quickly.


Rather than confer an air of ineffectiveness about these officers, everyone should be applauding their selflessness in the face of an armed suspect & just be thankful that nobody was hurt.

Don't bother to hide that agenda

It's no shock that Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Tony Norman has written a piece that would have been good, would have been informative, would have been actual reporting if not for a clumsy attempt to push a political agenda. Sure, many columnists want to believe that they're dispensing wisdom to the world no matter what they're actually disseminating, but have some integrity, people! Don't just stick things in there any which way so long as the editors will allow it. This is a piece of journalism, not a game of Jenga.