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By JEFFERSON WEAVER
I’ll preface this by saying Peyton Strickland likely didn’t deserve to die.
At the same time, I have a hard time feeling completely sorry for him.
Strickland, you may recall, was the college student killed when New Hanover County deputies went to his home to execute a search warrant. When the officer with the battering ram hit the door, another deputy opened fire, killing Strickland and his dog.
What also gripes me is that I heard yet another reporter on the Strickland case saying the words “As a journalist, I feel…” Makes me glad I’m a newspaperman, and not a journalist, but the semantics of my trade are a column for another day.
While many folks will cry foul when they read these words, I have to point out that whatever good deeds Strickland did in his foreshortened life, no matter how much his parents loved him, no matter what a great pal he was, the officers in question were on their way to arrest him for a felony.
Strickland and his friends allegedly beat and robbed another student. Strickland himself was charged prior to that with seriously assaulting another young man. The group posed for a very silly picture which they put on the internet, letting anyone with an interest and a computer connection know they had assault weapons in the house. Their home was known, according to news reports, as an open “party house,” where drugs and booze were regularly available to anyone who wandered in.
None of these factors are reasons for someone to be killed.
But it shouldn’t be surprising.
I went to UNC-Wilmington, and lived in the neighborhood where the killing took place. It wasn’t unusual for UNCW police to call the Wilmington Police or the sheriff’s department for assistance if they expected a major problem. Nor was it unusual to try and serve a warrant on a student at home, rather than further embarrassing a suspect by arresting them in class.
I got to know the chief of that department a couple years ago (his mom is one of my favorite people) and I’m sure if he thought his officers needed some heavy weapons backup, there was good reason for it. I think the photo of those kids mugging with what looked like an M-16 and a riot gun was more than enough reason to do a forced entry of the house, especially since these punks were willing to beat someone up for a stinking video game system.
In today’s desensitized, disrespectful society, police officers realize that what was once a simple arrest can quickly get them hurt or killed. When I started covering law enforcement – really not that long ago, about the same time those kids were born – officers rarely had to worry about trouble serving a warrant on a suspect at home, much less expect a shootout at a traffic stop.
But on the morning I write this, three officers were killed in this country while pulling people over for driving violations. Two teenagers, in separate incidents, are blaming video game violence for making them want to shoot up their schools.
If a bunch of thieving kids pose for a picture with weapons made for hunting humans, not deer, and beat up another kid over an expensive toy, what the heck do we expect the police to think? That the punks would meekly walk out the door and ‘fess up?
I admit to being a little biased toward the police in this case, although the deputy in question made a dreadful mistake, in my opinion.
You see, I’ve known two officers who died in the line of duty. One, Donald Ray Tucker, was a dear friend of mine who saved my life once on a drug raid. This was back in the good old days before the Supreme Court decided it wasn’t fair to allow press to go along with the police.
About a year later, Donald was shot by a drug dealer while working undercover.
Another, Jamie Collins, died in a high-speed chase, when he was just trying to help out his fellow officers.
Neither Donald nor Jamie died going through the door of a suspect’s house, but in each case, the officer died because someone (a) committed a crime, (b) showed total disregard for the laws on fiearms, traffic, drugs, and other people’s property, and (c) the criminals didn’t care that they were breaking the law.
Having seen a fellow wanted for a probation violation whip out a sawed-off shotgun, then hearing his attorney claim “PlayStation made him do it,” I can understand why a keyed-up SWAT officer might make such a terrible mistake.
People – not just young people, but all people – seem to have lost their respect for not just the law, but for other folks.
Once upon a time, an officer didn’t have to worry about pulling his gun. Many small towns didn’t even have to worry about petty crime.
People respected each other, and respected the law.
Either people have gotten stupid, or just plain sorry.
It strikes me as pretty simple: if you do bad things, criminal things, then people with guns will come after you.
Those people have the legal right to carry firearms, and they have the right to shoot people who may injure or harm other, law-abiding citizens.
If Peyton Strickland and his friends hadn’t broken the law in the first case, then the chances of being shot by Deputy Chris Long or any other officer would have been miniscule.
Did Strickland deserve what he got? Of course not.
Was it a surprise? Of course not.
Was a video game system worth a young man’s life, a family’s grief, and an officer’s career?
Of course not.
Weaver is a staff writer at the News Reporter. He may be reached via telephone at 642-4104, ext. 227, or via e-mail at jeffweaver@newsreporter.biz
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