OPEN LETTER TO DR. PHIL

It was trash the police day on the May 10 Dr. Phil Show

Dear Dr. Phil

I am an 80-year-old former law enforcement officer and retired professor of criminal justice. As a college educator I never defended poor policing or bad cops to the extent that I have been accused of being unfair to some officers.

I have been watching your show which comes on daily at 3 p.m. on Ch. 2 here in Houston. Usually your guests leave me shaking my head concerning their behavior. But on Tuesday, May 10, the second half of your show left me utterly disgusted, not with your guests, but with you, Dr. Phil! Tuesday was Trash the Police Day on the Dr. Phil Show.

At a time when there is so much vitriolic rhetoric being expressed against cops on social media, on TV and in the print media, you fueled and fanned the flames of hatred against the police, and it sure looks like you did it deliberately to sensationalize your show.

Let me start with your guest Lezley McSpadden, Michael Brown’s mother. The shooting of her son was not only a tragedy for her, but it was also a tragedy for Officer Darren Wilson.

Ms. McSpadden painted a picture of Michael Brown as an upstanding youth who graduated from high school and was about to enter college. That is far from the truth. Michael Brown was a dope smoking thug who had just committed a strong-arm robbery at a convenience store when he was confronted by Officer Wilson. Whether Wilson was aware of the robbery or not is irrelevant. During the confrontation, Brown injured Wilson who shot the thug because he was in fear of his life.

Witnesses, including his crime partner, claimed Brown had his hands up in surrender when he got shot. They were all discredited. Eric Holder’s Justice Department tried in every which way to charge Wilson with depriving Brown of his civil rights. But after an extensive investigation by the FBI and U.S. Attorneys, they determined that Wilson was justified in shooting Brown. Ms. McSpadden and Brown’s supporters, in clouding Black Lives Matter, refuse to accept those findings.

The matter of Brown’s body being left lying in the street came up. In many jurisdictions across the country, the policy is that once a shooting victim is known to be dead, his body is left at the crime scene until the medical examiner and the crime scene unit have completed their work. I suspect you know that. In any case, bringing it up was another way of trashing the police.

One of your other guests, Angie Hammond, was on the show to talk about the death of her 19-year-old son Zachary at the hands of a Seneca, South Carolina police officer. In this case, it appears that the cop lied about why he shot Zachary and was not justified in shooting the young man. I have to agree with Mrs. Hammond that the cop shot her son out of anger. And you brought up the shooting of Robbie Tolan by a Bellaire, Texas cop, another unjustified shooting.

OK, so you had two examples of cops shooting an unarmed young man without justification. But why bring Mrs. Hammond and the Tolans to your show other than to trash the police?

There are more than 800,000 commissioned law enforcement officers in the United States. You can expect to find some bad apples in the barrel. Those 800,000 officers constantly confront traffic violators, drunks, wife-beaters, criminals and the mentally ill. Rarely do those officers resort to the use of deadly force, but in those rare instances when they do, that gets all the media attention. Worst of all, Black Lives Matter and their ilk want everyone to believe that white cops are out to kill black men, a reprehensible lie.

You pitched Ms. McSpadden’s new book, Tell The Truth & Shame The Devil; The Life, Legacy and Love of My Son Michael Brown. That book is a work of fiction! Michael Brown was a dope smoking thug, not the choir boy his mother painted him to be. She wants to see him as any loving mother wants to see her son and she wants everyone else to see Michael Brown the same way.

I can understand why Michael Brown’s mother refuses to believe that Darren Wilson did not murder her son. I can also understand why she wants everyone to see her son like she wants to see him. What I cannot understand is why you would put on a program that trashes the police, especially during these volatile anti-police times. The vitriolic rhetoric that has been spread around has led to the murder of two New York police officers and most likely to the murder of two Houston officers.

One of my granddaughters is a police officer. You have made her life and the life of all other cops harder and you have possibly helped jeopardize their lives. Shame, shame on you Dr. Phil.

You owe the 800,000 law enforcement officers in this country a great big public apology!