Newspaper attacks men in blue
The privacy of police officer’s personal information should be the top priority
The San Antonio Observer threatened Feb. 6 to publish the names and addresses of every San Antonio police officer. After the tabloid came under attack for the threat, the paper recanted and claimed that the paper would not follow through with their threat. However, even the simple notion that a professional journalistic organization would threaten to put the safety of police officers and their families at risk is absolutely horrid.
Police — A newspaper compared police officers to the KKK. Google Images
In a press conference explaining why the San Antonio Observer would even consider espousing private details of the city’s law enforcement, editor Stephanie Zarriello likened the police to the Ku Klux Klan and sex offenders.
“Like Ku Klux Klansman with hoods, (officers) do everything they can in order to protect their identities for fear of being brought to justice,” Zarriello said. “Just as the names and addresses of sex offenders are publicized in order to protect the public from their wicked behavior, we feel that our community has the right to the exact same level of protection.”
After an officer-involved shooting that killed a 36-year-old man, the newspaper felt justified in its desire to publish the private information of every officer in the city, whether or not they had anything to do with the event that provoked the situation in the first place.
Although the San Antonio Observer has said it will not go through with revealing the names and addresses of every police officer in the city, the threat should be taken as seriously as if the newspaper still planned to go through with it.
If the private information of officers were to be made public, criminals with a desire to do harm to an officer who had formerly arrested them would be able to track down and take his or her vengeance. The innocent friends and family members of officers would also be at risk for attack.
To liken every police officer to a Ku Klux Klansman is to say that every single police officer is racist and deserves to be put in harms way. However, very few police officers have ever committed a crime or abused their power. Most are good, law-abiding citizens whose safety does not deserve to be jeopardized.
There is no reason why anyone would need the address of a police officer unless they planned to show up at their house and commit some atrocious crime against the officer and their family.
When the daughter of Eric Garner, the man who died in police custody in New York City in 2014, tweeted the address of one of the officers involved in her father’s arrest, the tweet was quickly removed.
Just as a private social media account was made to remove the information, so should any publication that reveals the information of law enforcement.
That being said, the San Antonio Observer should be held responsible for the threats made against law enforcement officers and face legal repercussions.
By ensuring that one major publication is taken seriously and dealt with, police officers and their families can be assured that other major publications would not dare to even mention publishing their personal information.
Young is an opinion writer.