Brimfield, Ohio, police Chief David Oliver has a simple message for anyone trying to turn the latest school tragedy into a chance to attack each other: "pipe down."
Olver took took to the Brimfield Police Department Facebook page on Wednesday after a student slashed his classmates in a suburb of Pittsburgh this week. And he wasn't happy with the way the comments were shaping up.
"A little while ago, I posted about the tragic stabbings of students at a high school in Pennsylvania," he began. Then he described what he didn't like: "Soon after, the insults and innuendos started, with words like 'conservative' 'liberal,' 'it wasn’t a gun' and 'arm the teachers.'"
[sharequote align="center"]"We have to be the examples for those who are still growing."[/sharequote]
He went on to offer some "unsolicited advice" that called on adults to act like, well, adults:
Until we, as adults, learn to stop being angry, insulting each other and picking fights every chance we get, how in heck can we expect our kids to behave any differently? I guarantee, if you are an Internet troll, generally angry and surly and by all appearances hate the human race, the children around you will act no better than what you are modeling. We have to be the examples for those who are still growing.[sharequote align="right"]"There is no perfect political party, no perfect way to peel a banana, and no perfect person."[/sharequote]
If you want another opinion, here you go. Until adults start leading and acting like adults, we are just spinning our wheels. There is no perfect political party, no perfect way to peel a banana, and no perfect person. Adults insulting each other and cramming political views in our ears in a constant barrage of “the world is ending,” is only making the kids in our society more stressed and angry.
In a case like this awful stabbing incident at a HIGH SCHOOL….pipe down and let the people mourn. Be there for them, but be quiet unless there is something helpful to say.
He concluded with a sarcastic mea culpa: "My apologies for being direct. It’s sort of my thing."
Image via Brimfield Police Department/Facebook
Oliver is known for his candid comments on Facebook. In the fall of 2013, the Associated Press did a write-up featuring his Facebook persona:
Brimfield Township Chief David Oliver started the department's Facebook page more than three years ago in the hopes of reaching a few hundred people in his northeast Ohio community. But his posts mixing humor, blunt opinion, community engagement and rants against "mopes" – criminals and other ne'er-do-wells – draw an audience much larger than the approximately 10,000 residents the department serves.The department's Facebook fans surpassed that of the Philadelphia police page this summer and trail only the much larger Boston and New York departments.
So far, he's already received praise for his mini essay.
(H/T: WJW)
