And it couldn’t be more different from what you’ve been seeing lately.
Office William Stacy was dispatched to a Dollar General Store in Tarrant Alabama for a shoplifting complaint. What happened next is wonderful:
The holiday spirit is definitely in the air in one town in Alabama.
When Officer William Stacy got called to a Dollar General store in the city of Tarrant for a shoplifting complaint, he didn’t end up making an arrest, but instead, made the perpetrator’s day a little brighter.
Helen Johnson, 47, had been caught attempting to steal eggs for her hungry family – her niece, daughter and two grandchildren had gone two days without food – according to AL.com. Johnson went to the store with $1.25 and was short 50 cents for a dozen eggs, so she hid five in her pocket, which immediately broke.
After hearing about the situation, Officer Stacy decided not to press charges and made a deal with Johnson that if he buys the eggs, she won’t shoplift again, according to AL.com. She agreed and asked if she could give him a hug.
Here’s the video
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm4WDvzjMBY[/youtube]
And that wasn’t the end of it.
On Wednesday, William Stacy and his fellow Alabama police officers delivered two truckloads of food to the Helen Johnson family. The food will feed Johnson’s children and grandchildren through Christmas. The hug between the officer and the poor mother was captured on video, and quickly went viral.
Stacy dismissed it being a big deal:
“All across the U.S., law enforcement officers do stuff like this on a daily basis,” Officer Stacy told AL.com. “I felt like it was the right thing to do.”
This is a heartwarming story and it deserves as much publicity as the unfortunate stories you’ve already seen. It offers a stark contrast to this– a rap video extolling the virtues of executing cops.
Wouldn’t it be nice to see Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson fly down to Alabama, pose with Stacy and Johnson for pictures and publicly thank him for his actions?
Not a chance. They’re race pimps, race whores. They’re not interested in the good that lives in people.
And that’s sad. But watch the video again and let it lift your spirit today.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 40 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 45 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter who is in the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
I can hear Sharpton now; “Were those eggs WHITE? Damned racist cop!!”
This is an example of what happens many times every day, across this country. Not always a truck load of food, but cops making a positive difference in people’s lives when the opportunity presents itself. Police officers, especially uniformed patrol officers, have the opportunity every day to have this sort of impact on people’s lives and the quality of life in the communities they serve; and the cops follow through. These things are rarely reported or recognized, most of the cops actually prefer it that way. The things I did in my 20 year career that I am most proud of didn’t have anything to do with putting people in jail, all to do with having the ability and resources to make a positive difference in people’s lives. Those things were done without recognition, that wasn’t my motivation; in fact, most of the time even my supervisors didn’t know what I was up to, and I wouldn’t mention it unless they asked.
Police officers having positive effects on people and their communities happen far more often than the “newsworthy” stories of tragic situations and ugly scenarios, yet go unrecognized and unreported; the good cops pretty much prefer it that way, and continue to work that way despite the way we are portrayed in the media.
That is a heartening story; Officer Stacy’s actions are commendable.
However, the article leaves many questions unanswered: What factors led to Ms Johnson needing to steal food to feed her family in the first place? On behalf of herself, her neice, and her grandkids: what’s being done to address those factors? A few weeks worth of groceries will undoubtedly be a welcome reprieve, but, unless the factors that left her impoverished in 2014 are addressed, what’s going to be on her grandkids’ breakfast plates come Jan 1, 2015? What of other families in the area facing similar circumstances – how many other fellow Americans must choose between feeding their kids this winter or breaking the law? And why the hell are Americans having to make that choice in 2014? Are we a third-world country here, that we can’t at least get full, healthy meals in front of our kids each day?
I liked the bulk delivery of food idea from this story: such a simple and direct solution to Ms. Johnson’s immediate problem. Why, as a society, couldn’t we choose to scale that up a little, and have a weekly bin of groceries delivered to all residences in need (with simplistic criteria, such as sufficiently low ratio of household income to headcount – or even just by request, for households with children under 18)? Nothing gourmet, just an assortment of healthy/core foods sufficient to get three squares on the plate of everyone in the home. It seems like with proper tax incentives/reimbursements for local grocers (and sufficient funding to put the infrastructure in place), we’d be able to build a program that would take the joy and relief Ms. Johnson’s family is getting for three weeks and multiply it up by a factor of a million (or more).
I wonder if, with a House and Senate majority of Compassionate Conservatives coming into power, it might be the prime time for our society to build out programs like this.
@Kevin Kirkpatrick #3…
Mrs. Johnson obviously has her hands full, raising other people’ children. Do you not recognize that as a huge part of the problem? No fathers in the house? Moms either? I agree her problem in the short term has been addressed, but instead of the government giving away more wouldn’t it be better if the black culture changed itself to take care of their own? Maybe if the government was less involved in rewarding people for not working and instead returned this country to the business and industry super-power we once were, more people would be working, more (and better) jobs would be available. More give-a-ways, more food stamps, more welfare is not the answer; more government is no answer either.
Answer me this question… have you ever bought a complete stranger groceries? Made arrangements to get a car fixed or a tire or two replaced? Arranged for a hotel to house a Mom and her kids when the shelter was full? If not, why not? I have done all of those things and more, while wearing a uniform and sometimes being very close to broke myself; it isn’t the government’s job to provide charity (there’s a quote somewhere about that), it is our jobs, as people being a little more fortunate than others, to help others and provide a little charity.
This particular thread isn’t about cultural fixes or taking care of families; it’s about much maligned police officers doing good things that rarely get recognized.
@Kevin Kirkpatrick: No doubt this story will come to the attention of Reverend Al Sharpton and he will see to it that the lady no longer wants for food. He may even offer her some helpful tax advice.
@Kevin Kirkpatrick:
Think about that for a moment, Kevin. Her niece, who if too young to work means she is taking care of a child that is not her own, her daughter, again, too young to work, and two grandchildren. So let’s assume she is the only adult in the household. That means that if she is not working, she is eligible for public/Section 8 housing, food stamps, Medicaid, subsidized utilities, free cable TV service, an Obama phone, and would have access to any food bank/church charity in the area.
But……………………if like with the Lone Star Card where food stamps are dumped, you can get cash from that card to buy what ever you want, including cigarettes and alcohol, buy furniture with it, and basically spend the money where it should not be spent.
The answer is not more government forced charity, the answer is jobs for those who are capable of working, a father in the household, and making sure that everyone gets their education even if it is only via a GED obtained by attending the free classes that are offered at most every high school in America.
SIDENOTE TO ADMINS: Is there a reason the page is set to refresh every (30? 60?) minutes? It’s refreshing in a way that wipes out everything I’ve typed thus far, which is quite annoying for those who compose responses 5-minutes here/5-minutes there. For now, I just type replies in Notepad and copy/paste here, but I wanted to point out the behavior in case it is not intentional. This is using Chrome browser, by the way.
@Scott+in+Oklahoma:
I tend to view problems faced by any Americans as problems with our American culture. Call me overly patriotic, but when I think of America as the greatest nation on the planet, I’m not doing so distinguishing white America and black America. Really? Splintering our country into sub-categories in order to rationalize away any responsibility for helping other Americans in need? Doing so along grounds of the color of peoples’ skin, as you do here? No thanks.
I’ve always thought of the government as the collective power of all Americans, run by all Americans, to protect the interests of all Americans. I wonder – how are American children such as those Ms Johnson is raising going to get a solid education if their care providers have to steal eggs from the dollar store in order to get a nutritious meal in front of them? Without that education, how will they find careers that allow them to provide for families of their own? I think the phrase is “self-perpetuation cycle”.
The problem with charity is really a problem with human psychology: charity is empathy-based, and our empathy is wired to leave us inclined to help others in an anecdotal fashion based on proximity. Our hearts swell at individual acts of kindness (and don’t get me wrong, helping the person struggling right in front of us is HUGELY commendable), but the plural of “individual acts of kindness” simply does not scale. It has never, and will never, put 3 square meals, 365 days a year, on the plates of the millions of American children whose caretakers cannot afford it. And wow, does it make things worse when some people don’t see many of those malnourished kids as American children so much as “black culture problems”… this “Somebody-Elses-Problem” mentality is the refuge of scoundrels, and tends to be uncannily common in comment sections of conservative blogs.
Tackling large-scale problems requires large-scale solutions, built by the collection of, consolidation of, and focusing of massive and consistently available resources. Our national defense, for example, would be a joke if it consisted of hundreds of local militias “doing their part” to stand up to the military forces of other nations (even if those local militias had access to all the money saved by not paying taxes to a centralized US military). Interstate transporation *was* a joke when it relied on each community focusing on keeping it’s own roadways up to snuff. So too goes the problem of addressing the systemic poverty that has Americans in 2014 stealing eggs from the grocery store to feed their children. You’re fooling yourself if you think it’s going to be fixed by sufficiently large numbers of policement choosing not to arrest, and instead provide a few weeks of groceries to, a single grandmother for a single family.
Frankly, I don’t live a life where my inclination to help those around me in monetary need is frequently brought to bear. My career often demands 60+ hour work weeks in front of a computer screen; and as a father actively involved in raising two younger kids, I simply do not spend much time in the proximity of those who need that help (the person in front of me at Sam’s Club might need a hand getting the 45″ flatscreen tv. into the minivan, but doesn’t usually need a lift to a nearby shelter). Yeah, in those rare cases where the person right next to me is in a hard spot, I’m overjoyed by the opportunity to help out (i.e. last year at WalMart the mom who was arguing with the lady at the counter because she couldn’t get her thread-bare front tire changed because WalMart, for liability purposes, could only put 2 new tires of matching brands on – which the woman couldn’t afford – was presumably pleasently surprised to find the entire bill for both tires taken care of; and a $20 bill to get her daughter something from the toy aisle). But I don’t kid myself into thinking “problem solved!” for that family. That mother was about to drive her child home on hazardous, unsafe wheels for lack of $40 needed for the second tire – and I have no illusions about that being the first time she’d had to cut short on her child’s welfare for economic reasons.
That said, I do commit the same *level* of “act of kindness” twice a month (actually, far in excess of that, monetarily speaking) – and have done so going on 15 years – with paycheck deductions toward United Way that scale with my salary. But, and this is what I mean about human psychology, I cannot deny that my consciensous senses are 10-fold more boosted when I do things like handing a $3 six-pack of Mountain-Dews to the weary staff at the DMV, who’d just put up with the obnoxious tirade of screaming from another “customer”, while working the counters 20 minutes past close.
We agree – it is our jobs, as people a little more fortunate than others, to help others and provide charity. Funny, you say “jobs” though – did you mean “option”? Because I think that’s where we differ: I really mean “job”, as in a mandatory component of our social contract; with no “scrooge” option available. I want an America of equal opportunity: where our kids can count on a three healthy meals each day (irrespective of their parents economic situation). And it’s self evident: voluntary charity IS NOT getting us there. It is not coming close, and never has.
Only the US government has the power to collect and direct sufficient resources to address problems of this scale. Individual acts of charitable giving are great for local short-term aid, but hoping that it’ll deal with national poverty, is like saying handgun are great for home defense, so let’s all get together with our handguns to deter Russia from invading Alaska.
@Kevin Kirkpatrick:
Of course you ignore the fact that every “economically disadvantaged” child is entitled to a free breakfast, and lunch, at their school. If she can’t feed the kids that she is raising, which are not hers, the school will. All she has to do is apply her food stamp allotment to dinner and what ever she feeds them on weekends.
Surely, Ms. Johnson is receiving state and federal aid, which would include her food stamps. It would be interesting to see how she used that aid, wouldn’t it? Is it put on an EBT card where she can draw out cash instead of buying food? Why is she supporting a niece, a daughter and two grandkids. What are the ages of the niece and daughter? Are they employable? Is she employable? Where are the fathers of her grandchildren?
To paraphrase Paul Harvey, we need to know the rest of the story.
Then you are obviously oblivious to what goes on in D.C. Our “collective” power ended over 100 years ago as those who think they are our betters decided what our lives will be like. And the word “collective” can be found no where in our Constitution. It is a Marxist term that the left seems to have donned as their mantilla of philosophy.
You’re right, voluntary charity has not got us there since FDR and LBJ decided that the government can be your daddy. Now we have charity forced by the power of the IRS. Not only are responsible people responsible for their own children, they are now responsible for the children of irresponsible people, like absentee baby daddies.
And that is NOT working. We have just as much poverty in our nation now as we did when LBJ launched his war on poverty via the Great Society. But we have accomplished one thing; we have literally destroyed the black family. That is perhaps the most accurate explanation of why Ms. Johnson was stealing eggs.
@Kevin Kirkpatrick: Good points, however why do women continually have babies they can ill afford and there are usually no fathers? Usually, and not always, because they get money. For each child they get day care, medical, food stamps et al. Why did she run out of food and/or money is not because of something you did, or I did (and I wonder the reason). I give to charities too, but giving people continual assistance, free this and that does not instill a sense of responsibility, it instills a sense of entitlement. This is the problem. Too many people believe they are entitled, and they are not. I work hard for my money and freely give it to charities and organizations that I deem will actually help others (versus pad the CEO’s pocket) however that is my choice. I do not want my money taken from me to give to those who believe themselves entitled – that is socialist, redistribution of income. Is this being hard? probably but I worked my way from a poor family and anyone can IF they want to regardless the obstacles.
@Scott+in+Oklahoma: #2
Scott-
I am in the habit of keeping several gift packs in my car to hand to random officers that I meet. Especially around Christmas. Do you have any suggestions for inexpensive items that I can add, besides what goes in now?
2 boxes of disposable stick pens
2 small packs of Kneenex
2 bottles of hand sanitizer
2 pocket spiral notebooks
A package of Nytril gloves from Harbor Freight, and one of the free LED flashlights that I collect every time that I go there
Gel shoe inserts
All in a clear zip-lock bag so that the contents are clearly visible.
My grand-niece likes to visit me in December, because she loves to go on what she calls “The Great LEO Hunt” in my car, where we go cruizin’ for cops. She’s seventeen now, and still thinks that LEOs are great.
Note to everyone: I am not and never have been in Law Enforcement, no one in my family has as far as I know, and my nephew will be in prison for the rest of his life.
I am a retired truck driver, and contrary to popular belief, truck drivers and LEOs are natural allies, NOT enemies.
@Petercat #10:
That’s a good and useful list, the spiral notebooks should be the shirt pocket size ones. Bottles of water are always good too. I am sure my brothers and sisters appreciate the efforts.
And speaking of allies, I was an owner-operator for about 10 years before I was a cop, that overlapped a couple of years until I sold my last truck a couple years into my police career. My trucking buddies thought I had lost my mind when I became a cop đŸ™‚
@Scott+in+Oklahoma: #11
I can understand that. Why would you leave a job where you won’t be home every night, people treat you like dirt, and the pay is poor for the work that you do, for one where…
You can’t be sure that you’ll ever go home again, people treat you like s–t, and the pay is miserable for the work that you do?
Bottled water… great idea! I’ll add some.
I believe this happens all the time!! Shame on our press!!