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By: Timothy Kays
It seems like it’s everywhere anymore. In a media driven political frenzy, people are going off the deep end, with demands to defund…and in some cases even abolish police departments across the country. It’s just as far away as the 6:30 evening news, so it’s got to be making its way into small town America, right?
“Actually, not at all in our community,” said West Unity Chief of Police, JR Jones, “…because our community is 100% supportive of first responders and police. We’ve had a good outpouring, whether it’s a nice card with something nice wrote on it, or things like that ever since this has kicked up. And unfortunately there’s been a bunch of people outside of our area, formulating opinions on partial information. Legislators…we’ve seen the lack of support. In our community, we’re not having issues like what’s being said on the national scene.”
“We’re working with our citizens; our citizens are working with us. We have good working relationships. I guess what I’m getting at is the bias that’s been nationally put out there, I don’t see that our citizens buying into that.”
“I think that’s huge,” he continued. “It’s our citizens recognizing the bias, the agenda being put out on the national scene, and it’s them saying, ‘No, we don’t buy the agenda. We don’t buy the bias.’ I think that’s an outpouring that they’re showing the police that, hey…your community supports you and has your back.”
You can see all the evidence of what Chief Jones has described on the West Unity Facebook page, but there are some instances where the social media angle can’t keep pace with real time life. “Our football team tonight,” Chief Jones said, “…the head football coach asked some of the officers to come out. They did little gift packages for the officers, Gatorade, snacks, whatnot. Then all the football players signed the thin blue line flag for us.”
“So with gestures like the Facebook thing and the football team doing what they did, I mean, I’m sure I’m missing more, but when you’re seeing that, it’s basically people saying, ‘Listen now. We see what’s going on here, and we think our police departments do the best they can, and we’re supporting them.”
“I would like to thank the citizens of West Unity and the citizens of Williams County,” Chief Jones said, “…because I think Williams County is the size that we all know each other and we’re all friends and family. I’d just like to thank everybody for their support, and our local newspaper, The Village Reporter.”
“I think even before this, going back years, they’ve highlighted police departments. So it’s not just the community. It’s not just the citizens, it’s businesses. It’s newspapers. Williams County is a great place, and West Unity…I absolutely love West Unity. We’re very fortunate.”
Timothy can be reached at tim@thevillagereporter.com
