It was all in good fun
By Chief Danny Watson, City of Darlington Chief of Police
Early in my career, as a public information officer, I discovered that no matter how stupid someone is, you don’t call them stupid on the 6 o’clock news. Generally as most things go however, I learned the hard way.
We had a gentleman (and I will use that term loosely) climb on the roof of a building, take all of his clothes off and then slide into an A/C duct to get inside a building. As luck would have it he fell through the ceiling and knocked himself unconscious. After being stretched out on the floor for a bit he reached up and grabbed a chair with wheels on it. When one grabs a chair with wheels on it the chair has a tendency to slide away. Wait for it… that’s right, it flew forward, he fell backward – and you guessed it, he knocked himself out again.
The officers arrived on the scene within a couple of minutes of the alarm going off and found him sitting against the wall of the business on the inside. He was locked inside, naked, with no way to get out and decided to wait for the police. Officers took the young man into custody for burglary. He had cut his feet, hands and other parts of his body on the metal screws that were inside the A/C duct. At the end of the day it was a bad plan. Incidentally, it was a check loan place that didn’t keep any cash in the business afterhours, so there was nothing to steal to begin with.
When I questioned the young man his story was he had thrown his keys on top of the roof and he was up there to get them. I asked him, “Why would you throw your keys on the roof to start with?” I am sure that you know that’s when the story started to get even more farfetched. Needless to say it continued to go further south when he started his explanation of why he happened to be naked. On the news that evening the only thing that really made it to the clip was, “We will take all of the dumb crooks we can get.”
Now speaking of being unlucky, as I walked into the station the next morning who do you think was waiting for me? His mother? That’s right; and the first thing out of her mouth was, “I just wanted to meet the man who called my son stupid on the 6 o’clock news.” Sometimes you have to own what you say. In this instance as I was formulating my next response, there were several things that went through my head. The first response that bubbled to the surface was, “Ma’am obviously your son is not working for NASA otherwise he would have had a better plan.” This I did not say, although to be honest it was quite tempting. Finally after a couple of minutes of agonizing uncomfortable silence I said, “Ma’am, I realize he is your son and you are not entirely enchanted with what I said.” Do I think today that the loosely termed gentleman was at the head of his class in burglary science? A resounding no would still be my response.
I am very diligent about the words that come out of my mouth today, and ones that I post online, because I am quite certain that much like a boomerang they are in fact coming back. In relating this somewhat funny story it continues to dismay me that you can’t just call it what it is. I wrote this article all in good fun because sometimes you just have to take a step back and laugh at yourself. It is a shame that people who do things wrong can’t simply take a look at what they have done and just take responsibility just as I have by what I said. The fact that what the young man did was in fact stupid didn’t necessarily mean I needed to say it, no matter how true it was. The lesson is that you should carefully think before you put something out there for everyone to see, hear, and read. For those of you who have not arrived at the intended destination I suggest you check your Facebook page or other social media.
The pictures you post and the things that you say on social media have a boomerang effect. Have a friend look at it, or your parents look at it preferably before you post it. Once you have posted something (or hopefully before you do) think about this. Would you be embarrassed for anyone to see what you posted? Would you be embarrassed about the pictures you posted? Would you want your boss to see them? How about your preacher? How about a perspective employer? “Well, it was all in good fun.” you say. Ok. Well. I guess we will see how fun it really turns out to be. Don’t destroy your reputation by posting something you might later be ashamed of once it’s out there it’s out there for eternity. It’s hard to explain something you did that was stupid later on and the phrase “it was all in good fun” won’t get you that far.
Chief Danny Watson MPA FBI NA # 228, Chief of Police for City of Darlington, has been on the Darlington Police Department since 1994 and Chief since 2011.
The News & Press will be sharing updates and opinions from Chief Watson on a regular basis; you can also keep up with the department on their Facebook page: Darlington Police Department.