Political Gumbo: Time to Chill on San Rafael

After critical police incidents, rumor-mongering and incorrect information quickly spreads throughout the community.

Every officer-involved shooting in the beginning is described as an assassination of an unarmed innocent man rife with racial overtones and hundreds of witnesses and people willing to talk and tell you what they saw.

That is until you ask one of the people to come forward and go on the record and then, as I have written before, it’s always a friend-of-a-friend’s-cousin is going to call you because he saw it.

They never do.

Then the facts begin to develop.

That’s the case in the incident between the police and the janitor at San Rafael Elementary School.

The facts are simple, a 911 caller told police he saw someone scale the fence. In this age of see something, say something, the police responded — not knowing what they would encounter when they arrived.

We live in a see something, say something era.

If the neighbor did see that, the call is legit.

But if no one scaled that fence, there is a different conversation to be had. As we remember in the Kendrec McDade case, a false police report can lead to a deadly outcome.

If the caller made a false report to the police, he should be dealt with accordingly.

Yes, police handcuffed the janitor while they worked to identify him so he could be released.

This is not another George Floyd moment, so miss me with that.

And no it is not easy to watch either.

In the end, the janitor was released, shaken I am sure, but unharmed.

But, if this were a tragedy in the making — think Uvalde — and police did not detain the janitor and call the principal, we would all be up in arms.

Yes, that includes me.

Thank God it wasn’t.

You have to consider all four sides.

The police, the janitor, what was happening, and what could have been happening.

Four sides, not two.

We live in an age where young white progressives like to ennumerate the evils of racism.

But not one white progressive has been called the N word during a police stop.

I have.

Take it from someone who has been handcuffed a grip of times by police growing up while walking, scrolling, standing, talking, and waiting — in the San Rafael School incident, those police officers did not have bad intentions.

I know what a bad police encounter looks like and folks that ain’t it.

That’s not to say, the police officers were in policy throughout the incident. I am sure an administrative review will be held to determine that.

But, kudos to the City for being transparent and releasing the video quickly, and respect to the school district for looking out for their guy as well.

It’s time to move on to the bigger issues in that community where some neighbors seem to be against the school.

Whatever the reason is neighbors, it’s time to get over it. You don’t own the streets. Yes, you pay for them, but so do the parents of the students.

Have a town hall meeting and work it out.

In the meantime, everybody take a breath.