More than one side to the story.

When I was a child, my mother and father used to say to me: "There's always more than one side to the story." I have remembered that saying a lot in the last few weeks. First there was the UVA rape story that was woefully one sided in its presentation by the Rolling Stone.  That story has since collapsed. I won't go into that in detail in this post.

Now, the December 5, "peaceful protest" story in Durham is coming unraveled. Right after the "peaceful protest" several people took to facebook and at least a couple of preacher took to their pulpits to excoriate the Durham Police Department's handling of that so called "peaceful protest." They would have drawn the disdain of my parents. I, frankly, am ashamed that I did not call my own preacher to task for her sermon that blamed police for the violence at the "peaceful protest."

WNCN our local NBC affiliate is reporting that the protest was far from peaceful. According to the WNCN report, DPD was expecting a large protest that might turn violent on Friday December 5. They based that conclusion on social media postings threatening violence. A reasonable conclusion, I might add. According to DPD and the City Manager, the protest began at CCB Plaza and moved toward the Durham County Jail. Once at the jail, fireworks were launched at the jail into the air and paint was thrown on the street. Things went downhill from there. Ultimately, 31 people were arrested by 120 police officers. It seems that those who were claiming a totally peaceful protest were, at the least, uninformed. They failed to get both sides of the story. And in doing so they presented a version that was far - far from the complete truth.

Walt-in-Durham