Thanks for your help.

I have been told that this blog is for the purpose of reacting to misstatement of facts and inaccuracies that have been printed recently in the local news media. What immediately springs to mind is an article printed in the Chico News and Review on 08/28/2008 titled What Really Happened to Jeremy Logsdon? Running down the rumors, looking for truth, written by Jamie O’Neill. I was originally planning to do a point by point rebuttal of O’Neill’s article, which relies in part on what I like to call REO Speedwagon information (heard, it from a friend who, heard it from a friend who, heard it from another you‘ve been messing around). I decided not to do that because how can you refute fantasy and make believe? I might as well attempt to argue with some Trekkie about the top speed of the Starship Enterprise.

As outrageous as this article is (if you haven‘t read it the link is here http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=779156) it brings up a couple of issues the public should be reminded of, and for bringing these issues to the public eye we should thank Jamie O’Neill.

First, police officers are your sworn protectors. We are here to protect the public and in doing so we put ourselves at great risk. When Officer Schmid exited his patrol car that night he didn’t know who Jeremy Logsdon was. He had never seen Logsdon before, he harbored no ill will toward Logsdon. There was no longstanding feud between the two, there was no history of police contacts that would have indicated to Officer Schmid that Logsdon was prone to assaulting police officers, there was nothing at all. There was simply a call for help and a police officer to answer that call.

What Officer Schmid knew about the situation he was thrust into was that there was a female motorist being attacked by a violent and obviously deranged individual (Logsdon), and Officer Schmid came to her aid. I want this to be perfectly clear to all of you reading this so I will reiterate it, Officer Schmid came to her aid. Officer Schmid was by himself at the onset of this call, and was soon being attacked Logsdon. Officer Schmid was now in a fight for his life. Now you may ask, “Why would you say that Officer Schmid was in a fight for his life?” The bottom line is, and this is doctrine taught to police officers beginning in the basic police academy, if a police officer loses a fight it can cost him his life. The underlying reason behind this way of thinking is that if a suspect overpowers us in some manner he has access to all of our weapons including our sidearm, which can be turned on us (and in many tragic cases it has). Officer Schmid called for assistance and it arrived. Logsdon did not go quietly he continued to resist as other officers attempted to gain control of him. Logsdon was taken into custody after continued assaults and resistive behavior. The job of protecting the public from a violent suspect was now complete.

Second, police work can be brutal. That is a fact of this job and it is a result of the fact that we often take people to jail that don’t want to go, and will do anything to keep from going. We deal with mentally ill people or in the case of Mr. Logsdon people that are high on mind altering drugs. So if a police officer encounters a suspect who is endangering a member of the public and they are going to resist arrest and assault us are we supposed to just ignore the problem and continue driving on because the situation may result in a physical altercation with the suspect? Obviously not, we the members of your police department are going to react because that is what we are trained to do, that is what we are paid to do, and that is what we have sworn an oath to do.

Finally let me leave you with this thought. When things go bump in the night who do you call? What do you think Jaimie O’Neill would do if he saw the same deranged, violent suspect beating on a woman’s car and threatening her life? Would O’Neill jump out and run to her aid…my guess is no. Jaimie O’Neill would call a cop.