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*** UPDATE JULY 15th ***

My original post below has been updated/edited to reflect information that was released by the RHPD later in their investigation, following the department’s initial statements on June 24th.

Despite these updates, as I have said repeatedly, law enforcement officers who serve their communities with honor and dignity will always have my respect. Their work is extraordinarily difficult, and the life & death decisions they routinely make in the blink of an eye are beyond what most of us could ever comprehend.

It is maddening to me to see a lack of appreciation and support for our men and women in law enforcement, which unfortunately permeates too many parts of our society today. This has to stop. It is right to demand transparency and accountability from our law enforcement agencies – nobody disagrees with that.  Nor should anyone disagree that when law enforcement officers are held to account, it should be based on fair, appropriate standards that are blind to external pressures and the public spotlight.

*** EDITED ORIGINAL POST FROM JUNE 24 ***

As loudly as I can say this: THANK YOU to the Rock Hill Police Department.

I’m so fed up with those who demonize our law enforcement officers. Just look at what happened yesterday in Rock Hill. Our officers were doing the absolute BEST THEY COULD to get those suspects apprehended. Yet a cell phone video – one that contained no footage whatsoever of the events leading up to that moment – was all it took to get protestors riled up, long before they themselves had ANY IDEA what actually took place.

Not only that, but several of the protestors set fires next to the police station in what could only be described as an attempt to burn the place down. It took a police escort to get the fire department on scene, but not without rocks being pelted at the police car. It’s unbelievable!

Around 9 PM last night, the Rock Hill Police Department issued an their account what happened earlier in the day. They were dealing with a known offender. K-9 smelled drugs in the vehicle. A search confirmed as much: two bags of marijuana. Oh, and a bag a crack cocaine that was found later. Not to mention a gun that was ILLEGAL for him to possess, since he’d previously been convicted of a violent crime.

It was a physical confrontation, yes, but the K-9 was never released from its handler, and officers did not deploy their tasers or weapons. There will be reviews to come, of course, but I believe those law enforcement officers from the Rock Hill Police Department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to get the situation under control. It could have turned out significantly worse – for police and these suspects – had law enforcement they not been able (or willing) to use non-lethal force in this situation.

Folks, our police officers are not here to punish people. That’s not what they do. Their job is to enforce the law, apprehend those whom they believe have broken the law, and turn those individuals over to the justice system.

And I stand firmly behind each and every one of them.  THANK GOD for every one of those men and women, and all who walk the thin blue line.