by
This story about a "threat" against DPD chief James Craig has my "skeptic senses" tingling.
I'm not saying someone didn't say something stupid on social media -- and yes, threatening police officers is downright stupid.
James Craig is a "spotlight-seeking . . . master of distraction," in Darrell Dawsey's view. (Photo via Fox 2)
But the way Craig shamelessly milks this story by mentioning it in every public appearance lately — including at Monday's funeral for beloved journalist Angelo Henderson — and then making such a big deal of Tuesday's arrests of five “suspects” just has my BS monitor going off.
All this talk about "not backing off" and wanting to "look this guy in the eye" smacks of oh-so much drama. It seems he's using some dumb (and quite possibly unserious) remarks to burnish this image he's cultivating as a scourge of the streets and to serve as "proof" that he's winning a drug war that was lost decades and billions of dollars ago. He's a master of distraction.
I know the FBI investigated the alleged threat — but was that just a matter of routine or did they really think a Detroit version of El Chapo was out to get the chief?
Precedent Or Posturing?
And is this the first time a DPD chief has been "threatened,” as the hubbub Craig has created seems to intimate, or was Craig’s reaction simply more outsized and attention-grabbing than those of his predecessors?
Just as disturbing as Craig’s spotlight-seeking, though, is the media’s largely passive acceptance of the chief’s line.
No journalist appears to have seen this alleged social media “threat.” (The chief claims someone posted a gun photo and “We need to clap him out,” which is slang for shooting him.) Yet few reporters or editors question its authenticity or gravity.
One who does has doubts similar to mine:
The threat is believed to have been posted on Instagram, a photo-sharing social media site. The picture is supposedly of a gun and is captioned, 'We need to clap him out,' referring to Chief Craig.
Yet, sources tell FOX 2's Taryn Asher no one has ever seen the original Instagram post, and that police found out about it while questioning a suspect connected to an unrelated crime.
The investigation continues into the source of the threat, and to if the post was taken down or ever existed in the first place.
So nobody has seen this “threat.” None of those arrested — all on charges unrelated to this “threat” — are accused of actually issuing it. And at least one TV newswoman openly wonders whether it even was made.
Why Sense a Real Danger?
And yet we have riled our communities, splashed this tale onto front pages and spent untold amounts of dollars and manpower from across a host of law enforcement agencies chasing down some Instagram poster who allegedly thinks the chief needs to go.
Even if you take Craig at his word rather than assume that he’s creating some dead-end distraction, how do you determine that the “we need to clap him out” comment is an actual threat rather than just some abstract expression of frustration? Is it really a deadly warning or just wishful musing? And does it really come from some drug gang pinched by DPD crackdowns or some ticked-off citizen merely bumping his gums online?
Our communities deserve safe streets, so I'm not going to complain about the arrest of violent criminals -- though it'll take a whole lot more than arrests to solve the city's crime problems.
But Craig strikes me as a publicity hound and something about this story seems more like a media-op than an actual response to a crime.
Earlier at Deadline Detroit:
