Dear Dodge County News editor,
I would like to condone “TSGT” Joseph Bryan United States Air Force, retired.
On his letter in which he submitted to the paper following the terribly tragic week that Dodge County and its citizens have been faced with in quite some time. Both Mr. Bryan and myself could talk all day long on just what has been going on in other parts of our country these past several weeks, and even during this tragic loss of one of our own local Eastman Police officers who was tragically shot and killed for absolutely NO REASON, other than he was a police officer and therefore saw as a target by nothing more than a 24 year old child with a gun in his hand.
Officer Timothy Smith was simply responding to me of many such calls that he had gotten over his five or so year stretch with the Eastman, Dodge County Police Department, except this one call would be unlike ANY OTHER CALL he had ever been called to and would ultimately ever be called to, as upon his arrival to this call Officer Tim Smith had his life STOLEN AWAY FROM HIM, HIS CHILDREN AND SOON TO BE BRIDE WERE AT THAT TIME ALSO ROBBED OF THIS WONDERFUL HARMLESS MAN’s life as well.
There is not a person on this planet who knew Tim even slightly who wouldn’t tell you that he was the kind of person who would give you the shirt off of his back and I don’t use that as some sort of cliché, if Tim Smith came across you and you needed his shirt then his shirt you would have.
So many times we hear people talk about people being the kind of person that we have all heard that Tim Smith was, well, all jokes and all bull aside, Tim WAS THAT GUY!! He absolutely loved his community and cared about EACH and every single individual that make up the community of both The City of Eastman as well the entire county of Dodge County.
One thing that SEPARATES PLACES LIKE EASTMAN, COCHRAN AND HAWKINSVILLE is the fact that during this tragic event not one business was looted, not the first RIOT TOOK PLACE NOR DID WE HAVE THE FIRST HOME NOR BUSINESS BURNED DOWN TO THE GROUND OVER THIS ALREADY TRAGIC EVENT, WHILE IN ONE MAJOR UNITED STATES CITY, THE CITY OF MILWAUKEE, THE CITIZENS THERE WERE ALL IN AN UPROAR OVER THE SHOOTING DEATH OF A LOCAL THUG. That had PURPOSELY POINTED A LOADED HAND GUN AT A BLACK POLICE OFFICER CAUSING THE MILWALKEE POLICE OFFICER TO FEEL THE NEED TO PROTECT HIMSELF AND SHOOT THE YOUNG MAN WHO HAD IN TURN POINTED A LOADED HAND GUN AT!!
These days as police officers what are these men and women supposed to do just stand there and be shot and killed simply in order to avoid riots in their cities? I AM SORRY BUT I THINK NOT!! IF THESE PUNKS WANNA RUN AROUND AND THINK THEY’RE BETTER TRAINED THAN OUR LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS from the farthest reaches of the west coast into the most farthest reaches of the eastern United States, then by all means I feel that at this day and time there is nothing we can do or say to make these idiots understand that they’re simply wrong!!