The Preston Johnson Affair

While the Sentinel is sometimes shaky in its product (how about the box cards today around the city trumpeting "Police Chief Resigns" when it was Ashby's chief?), but the story by Aaron Wasserman this week on the Preston Johnson shooting was pretty damn good.

We'll use two quotes from the story to kick it all off:

"Whether you're a person of the city or a police officer, you should get the same charges as anyone else," Tonya Merchant said in the story. "Because (trooper Donald Gray is) a police officer, it's different?"

"This was a black guy against the police," Juana Pagan said. "We don't have any rights for anything in this."

Merchant's theme is prevalent throughout the story. It would appear that no one is quite sure exactly what happened when Gray shot Johnson. Was it in self-defense? Was it something else? Just how much danger was Gray in, if any? They are questions that are never going to be answered. To answer Merchant's question of "it's different," yes, it is. Police officers put their lives on the line every day they go to work. A Save Fitchburg brother is a cop, and we prefer he stays safe as much possible. Certainly, Gray's action deserve close scrutiny and review, but it's rare the facts are black and white in these instances.

As for Pagan's remarks, that's an unfortunate reaction that has to be expected. Hopefully it isn't true, but it's a legitimate reaction.

City officials need to make sure this issue is taken care of. Reach out to the community and smooth out any rough edges before they lead to more problems. Fitchburg has enough problems to deal with, any race issues or other matters that stem from this aren't needed. A pro-active, thoughtful and sympathetic response is necessary.