More: Greenwood “invades” White River Township

In most cases, we do not elevate comments to articles but “Concerned CG Senior” brings up some good points that deserve more than a quick comment. This is the original comment:

Before you publish, you should probably get all the facts first. 1) The Johnson Country RESERVE Sheriff Deputy was off-duty and contracted through a third party security company for the CG Basketball game, his being there was for his own entertainment. 2) Yes, the Greenwood Police Department was called for not crowd-control, but the safety of the WRT Board. 3) The 5/6 Greenwood Police Officers were in the last 10 minutes of their shift (Shift Change), where 1 Officer was going into his shift. and 4) 3/6 Officers live in White River Township, with 2/3 having children that attend Center Grove Schools.

So before you go and beat up on the Greenwood Police, I would check to make sure YOU the writer has correct information before publishing it to the local community.

We did not publish article until the afternoon after the event. Allowing us time to fact check, A) I stated in the article it is dangerous, as I did; “assume” B) I noticed the Johnson County Deputy in the auditorium for some time, third party hire, or not, security was present.

Now a few things I did not mention in the article make it a big deal if you will. Towards the end of the meeting, I noticed a number of Greenwood officers in the meeting. I knew a Center Grove student at the meeting whose father was a Greenwood officer, the lived in “Greenwood but also in White River Township”. I asked him if his dad was present. He said yes his father had stopped by after his shift since they live in White River Township. This officer was not in the “group” of Greenwood officers. I also spoke to an officer, also not in the “group” and I asked him why he was there and he replied he lived in White River Township and did not claim to, or appear to be with the “group”. If you read the article, I never disputed the facts that a number of officers lived in White River Township.

Leaving the meeting someone said to my brother and me, “You know someone called the Greenwood police.” I thought this person was probably as much of a conspiracy theorist as the person who shouted about it the Greenwood police at the meeting, although their information was 100% correct in the past. I mean come on, why would Greenwood send their officers to a meeting in White River Township? I remind myself: never “assume”.

What I learned the next day was this person was as on target as they had been in the past. If you read the article, we never “beat up on the Greenwood police”. But we did report that Linda Gibson asked for help, she called, as you might expect, the Greenwood Chief of Police, despite council-person Gibson’s request, the appropriate authority, the Johnson County Sheriff’s department was not called. Instead, Greenwood officers were sent into White River Township. OK so it is not exactly the Germans invading Poland but wow, what a classic screw up at a key time in our future.

I have no issue with the Greenwood police officers or the Johnson County Sheriff’s department. Their leaders are responsible for the actions of their officers and deputies. In this key time, we all need to look at the reorganization plan and make non-emotional decisions. If the reorganization plan was not already dead on arrival (see previous article) this action most certainly did nothing to help its passage.

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