Local TV station torches Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office again

Channel 4 is at it again.

Having already embraced the concept of police brutality, the local TV station now is after “disparity,” another favorite topic of the Far Left.

With stories that border on being editorials, it is out to show that local police are racist and brutal, apparently.

The story on disparity even started out with a paragraph about brutality, which has no connection with what follows.

The story can’t even agree with itself.

“According to the Census Bureau, 30% of Jacksonville is African American. Of police officers working in the city, the data shows African Americans make up 12%,” one paragraph says.

Two paragraphs later, it says: “According to the Census Bureau, Jacksonville is made up of people who are 31% African American and 58% white.”

Putting aside the grammatical goof in the latter paragraph, which seems to say that everyone in Jacksonville is of mixed race, which census number cited for the black population is correct – if either?

Nowhere in the story does it explain why the racial breakdown of the police force must equal the demographics of the city as a whole, which is the implied point of the entire story.

It also doesn’t account for the 11 percent of the local population that it says is neither black nor white. Are they represented in precise proportions on the police force? How many Inuits wear blue uniforms?

The other glaring error is the implication that the sheriff is a racist because the force is not balanced racially the way some people would like for it to be.

The department can only hire people who apply.

There is no draft – yet – for police officers.

If no black people applied for the job, there would be zero black police officers. If no white people applied, the force might be 100 percent black.

Would that be better, worse, or would it not matter?

Applicants must be qualified and pass a test. Are black applicants passing at the same rate as whites? No viewer would know from the story prepared by the station’s investigative reporters.

Then there is a long-winded complaint that the number of sergeants and lieutenants doesn’t match a quota.

Again, applicants for higher rank also must take tests. The sheriff doesn’t knight them with his sword.

Viewers should not blame the reporter. They should look at editors and management of the station. Channel 4, or News4Jax, is part of the Graham Media Group, successor to the liberal Post-Newsweek media organization.

In an earlier story the station suggested that police are attacking citizens for no good reason.

It appears someone has an agenda that takes precedence over providing objective information to Jacksonville residents.

Jacksonville already is expected to be a target for radical agitators when the Republican National Convention is held in the city this summer. The media has a responsibility not to fan the flames of violence.

Leave that to the national media.

Lloyd was born in Jacksonville. Graduated from the University of North Florida. He spent nearly 50 years of his life in the newspaper business …beginning as a copy boy and retiring as editorial page editor for Florida Times Union. He has also been published in a number of national newspapers and magazines, as well as Internet sites. Married with children. Military Vet. Retired. Man of few words but the words are researched well, deeply considered and thoughtfully written.

Lloyd Brown

Lloyd was born in Jacksonville. Graduated from the University of North Florida. He spent nearly 50 years of his life in the newspaper business …beginning as a copy boy and retiring as editorial page editor for Florida Times Union. He has also been published in a number of national newspapers and magazines, as well as Internet sites. Married with children. Military Vet. Retired. Man of few words but the words are researched well, deeply considered and thoughtfully written.

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