First-class gesture by the Tampa Police Department and the University Mall Foot Locker to donate all those back-to-school shoes to the children of the three women who tried to help the dying TPD officers nearly two months ago. Even Police Chief Jane Castor, a very busy woman, found time to stop by and meet the families as they shopped.
Two points.
It was hardly coincidental that media were on hand to chronicle the shopping spree involving the women and eight of their children. Orchestration for a good cause. TPD was further underscoring that the death of those two officers will be much more than an unspeakable tragedy and a horrific reminder of a vile outgrowth of a dysfunctional culture.
TPD is saying, in effect, that the two fallen officers will be the catalyst of an ongoing and ever-ratcheting campaign designed to combat the “no-snitch” ethos prevalent in too many African-American neighborhoods. Indeed, while the black women who tried to aid the officers and called 911 have been on the receiving end of community-wide praise and gratitude, they have also received threats for violating the spirit of the “no-snitch” norm. TPD is saying murdered Officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab did not die in vain. Inroads into countering the “police snitch” mentality will ultimately make for safer communities. That will be the slain officers’ legacy. Not just tragedy, widows and orphans.
The other point: Surely, there was a time when people weren’t so rewarded, honored and feted for doing the right thing. For doing a thing that was so right–not ignoring the dying when every second was a life-or-death tick–that the only alternative was to do the inhumane and dishonorable. Surely.