A Texas sheriff told parents that police officers are not responsible “to raise your kid” amid outrage over the police-involved shooting of a 16-year-old girl in Ohio and other instances of young people dying during interactions with law enforcement.
“IT IS NOT THE JOB OF THE OFFICER TO RAISE YOUR KID. Parents need to take responsibility for the actions of their FAILURE to raise their child to be respectful, responsible and listen to authority figures. Little tip…sometimes your kid is wrong and needs to be disciplined. Jumping on teachers, coaches etc. All their life gives the kids a feeling they can do no wrong and they do not have to comply with authority figures. Parents need to be parents to their kids not their best friends,” Throckmorton County Sheriff Doc Wigington wrote on Facebook Friday.
He also addressed “so called solutions” floated by the public on how police could deescalate violent situations without killing the suspect.
“In the news cycle over the last few weeks have been stories of young people being shot by police in some type of altercation or another,” Wigington wrote. “The public is quick to jump on the officers involved stating a need for more training, better de-escalation tactics, and possibly shooting the subject in the leg.”
“Let me address these so called solutions. First this is not the old west movies and a leg wound is just as serious as a shot to center mass. When the use of deadly force is warranted that is exactly what it is DEADLY FORCE, not flesh wound force, not any other words to describe it just deadly force.”
“Officers have to make decisions of life and death in a matter of seconds that attorney’s, judges, and the general public can debate for years and possibly forever. It easy to post an opinion on social media as to ‘how I would have handled it’ instead of armchair quarterbacks we now have armchair police. If a person thinks they could handle the situation differently I encourage them to join an academy and become an officer,” he continued.
The post came just days after NBA star LeBron James sparked controversy after weighing in on the death of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant last week.
He posted a tweet of Ohio police officer Nicholas Reardon, who shot Bryant after she charged at two people with a knife, with the caption, “YOU’RE NEXT #ACCOUNTABILITY.”
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He was immediately hit with an eruption of criticism for “inciting violence” at a time when riots have reached a powder-keg situation in cities across the nation and soon deleted the tweet.
“I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police. I took the tweet down because its being used to create more hate — This isn’t about one officer. it’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY,” he said in a follow-up tweet.
