Archive: Opinions

With the recent incidents involving police shootings in New York and in Paris, and the reports of police shooting unarmed suspects, you would think we live in an unruly cowboy world.  But closer to home, our County Sheriff's Office has shown us that we do live in a world that is also big enough to encompass good sense and compassion.

The day after New Year's a Danby resident, David Cady, 36, barricaded himself in a residence on Hornbrook Road and fired at police who were there to serve him with a Felony DWI arrest warrant.  Deputies worked in shifts to keep the area outside the residence safe.  Eventually Cady shot himself dead.  Sheriff Ken Lansing released information from a preliminary report that revealed Cady had gone to Pennsylvania to purchase ammunition for a possible stand-off against police.  The report says he had multiple firearms inside the residence, strategically located for the anticipated shoot-out.

When someone shoots at a police officer that officer is certainly justified in shooting back.  Local law enforcement officers could probably have shot Cady, or shot at him.  I suppose it could have turned into a Waco-style standoff.  Instead, our law enforcement officiers showed intelligence and restraint, making multiple attempts to talk to Cady by land-line and cell phones and other means.

Eventually they breached the residence after collecting intelligence on the layout of the structure and how best to do it.  They found Cady's body that evening.

On top of law enforcement's restrained approach to what could have been an even more tragic incident, Sheriff Lansing was gracious in posting information about donating funds to benefit Cady's family when he posted the preliminary report on the Sheriff's office facebook page.

We live in a good place, but bad stuff happens everywhere.  The national news will never pick up this story because it is not sensational enough.  Law enforcement officers did what they are supposed to do, and they did it very, very well.  It is unfortunate that Cady did not survive, but a testament to our local law officers that they did everything they could to prevent it, and that they were not the ones who killed him even though they would have been justified in doing so.

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https://www.facebook.com/TompkinsCountySheriff