(a woman who saw me comment on Craig Wright's In the News TV program didn't like my spin on the City Market "Must See TV" incident that ended with an arrest. Here's our back and forth)
On May 27, 2009, at 8:26 PM, Diane Tyler wrote:
(Her) I just watched "In the News" with you and David Tate regarding the incident on the City Market a few weeks ago. Wow - to think that you think it is perfectly ok for anyone to purposely disregard a police officer is beyond belief. Have you ever had to call on the police to assist you with anything? If that had directly affected a member of your family (fight, weapons etc.) I bet you would be singing a completely different tune. It amazes me how you can say that if "Roanoke" wants to attract "Artsy - Young People" that we need to not do this type of thing. If that is the way we need to attract people to the downtown area then we are on the wrong path. When is it ok for an officer to arrest someone? Where do you draw the line? I can tell you that everyone that I have spoken to about this incident has completely supported the officer. He doesn't get paid enough to risk his life everyday for a community that feels that they can ignore the law. What were you thinking?
(me) Diane, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I was right there in the middle of it, and as far as I am concerned Officer Lucas totally overreacted. The Police Dept. also act as ambassadors for the city, and in this instance he did not do his job in reading the situation correctly. I am not condoning the young woman for not producing ID when asked, but there was no danger, no threat, and if you listen to Lucas's diatribe on YouTube you'd see he had some sort of ax to grind about the type of folks that like to hang out in front of the City Market building.
Police officers are merely human beings, they make mistakes, overreact, misread situations. Lucas did here, and it gave the city a black eye. Thanks for watching In the News!
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