Perhaps only someone who is raising or has raised a child can appreciate this thought: Don't judge a frazzled parent if his or her actions don't make perfect sense.
Parenting is fun and satisfying, but it can also be frustrating and challenging. So if a parent is at wit's end after the last drop of patient understanding has been drained away, he or she doesn't always make the most rational of choices. Sometimes it leads to a sharper-than-intended rebuke, sounding much worse as it emerges into the open for all to hear.
What’s the point?
Even in small things, public officials and employees must remain respectful of the authority and resources given them.
The cool has been lost. And the parent undoubtedly has only himself to blame. Children will be children. That doesn't mean the grown-up has to respond like one as well.
We don't know exactly why a Benton County Sheriff's Office detective reacted the way she did the other day when a Bentonville School District bus passed a stop where the law enforcement officer's son waited. Was it a calm, cool reaction of a trained officer? Or was the bus passing by without picking up the student the last straw on a morning that had already had some tension?
What we do know is someone witnessed the detective turning on lights and sirens of her county-issued vehicle, passing other cars, then stopping the school bus. She then ushered her child aboard for his morning ride to school. A video of the incident showed up on the Facebook page of Centerton's mayor.
The sheriff's office suspended Detective Nocanna Cordeiro for three days. The Centerton city attorney said Cordeiro's actions were inappropriate, but he did not believe they broke the law.
"I think it's poor decision making and not following policy," Brian Rabal said.
No, you can't really blame a parent who occasionally gets frustrated. But a detective, using her authority as a law enforcement officer and county equipment? Yes, we can find blame in that circumstance.
The incident is yet another in which a public employee felt some sense of entitlement, a right to use public property and authority for resolution of a personal matter. Thankfully, this was just a moment of bad judgment, not a long-term abuse of a public position.
Other residents are only left to wonder what their fate might be if they attempted to chase down a school bus and make it stop. Would that mom or dad be let off the hook so easily? Or would they face some charge of disturbing the peace or obstructing government operations? When it comes to average Joes, bad judgment gets prosecuted all the time.
We don't recommend anyone try to chase down and stop school buses. Putting flashing lights and sirens on a car and a badge in the driver's hand doesn't make it OK, either. As we have oft-repeated, the expectations for law enforcement officers is and should be higher.
The folks we really respect are the government officials who walk the line, who accept public authority and restrict its use to behaviors and decision-making intended to benefit taxpayers and others in the community. We appreciate how challenging their task is made when one of their colleagues pulls a stunt that makes government employees appear entitled, as though they get some special grant of privilege.
The privilege is the opportunity to serve the public. The more that thought stays front-of-mind, the fewer situations like this will have to be addressed.
Commentary on 05/23/2017