One of the sure signs — in literally any field — that you work for an idiot boss is by judging how often they take a simple situation and make it needlessly more complicated. Today’s example is Jefferson Parrish Sheriff Newell Normand, the man in charge of the investigation into Joe McKnight’s killing.
On Thursday, McKnight was killed by Ronald Glasser, who handed his gun over to police at the scene, a scene where witnesses saw the killing take place. On Friday, Glasser was released from custody without being charged. It wasn’t until Tuesday morning that Glasser was arrested and charged with manslaughter in the death of McKnight.
Between Friday and Tuesday morning, it’s fair to say Normand and anyone in his sheriff’s department got their share of hate mail because, you know, they had the white killer of a black man in custody and let him have a weekend to himself. So at a press conference Tuesday, did Normand play it cool? Play it professionally? Speak with empathy toward a scared and horrified community that did not understand how Glasser was allowed to free in the first place?
Nah, he did what any bad boss would do — he read a bunch of hate mail that was loaded with slurs of all kinds to make a point that … I don’t know. The world is crazy? It certainly wasn’t to show how rough he and his department has it. Oh no. It was for society.
A reporter, and god bless her, tries to pin Normand down on why Glasser was released and why he’d read this hate mail at a press conference, and he doesn’t give much of answer other than, “Society is crazy!” Yes, it sure is. But is it crazy because they don’t understand why you, the smart police officer is trying do, or is it crazy because we’ve seen this scenario play out hundreds of times and you literally let a killer free for a weekend after he handed you the weapon at the scene?
Also: Manslaughter? That’s it? Not second-degree murder for killing someone while stopped in traffic?
Bad news, Newell, but you’re probably going to get some more mail that makes you sad this week.
