A little while back we told you about the brewing war between St. Louis’ NBC affiliate KSDK and St. Louis Cops.
It appears channel 5’s reporter Leisa Zigman didn’t feel reportery enough so she got out her fedora, tucked her press pass in the band and went off to uncover a scandal! Long story short, she didn’t find one. Instead, Zigman decided to do a “report” on St. Louis police officers parking in no-parking spaces throughout the city, including in front of their own station! [Editor’s Note: Dun dun daaaaaaaaa!]
In the last 2 days the piece is finally out (you can see it and the video on KSDK’s site). Its clear from reading it that after the initial attention this story got, and the fact that not many were on KSDK’s side, they decided to hedge their bet, just a little:
Does this violation rise to the level of an FBI investigation into the department regarding an alleged towing scandal? Of course not.
Does this parallel the last years indictments against two veteran officers accused of planting evidence and dealing drugs? No.
But, the question raised is whether police or any public official is above the law, even if it’s just parking laws.
The slight backing off (and we mean very slight) hasn’t helped the cool the boiling blood on the other side. A quick stroll through the local police message board found remarks such as:
Thanks Lisa. What a news story. I’m sure you will get the Alfred E. Newman award for waste of film. I want you to investigate why my neighbor’s dog barks only at 6AM and wakes me up.
That was fun to watch. Excellent display of reporting!! NOT
The empty spots that she showed as being designated for police officers are NOT for police officers. She didn’t even bother to read the freaking sign. Those are for city hall employees.
Sloppy work on her part. Lazy work.
I even wrote Leisa beforehand and commented on this asking her if this was really news worthy? She did write back and said to watch the segment. She said what we really need is more police parking. I did not get that from the segment.
As far as we are concerned, the only Police Officer that should be fined is the one in the second quote above that is still using “Not!”