WE ARE RICHARD JEWELL

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  I am kind of shocked that the movie Richard Jewell has had such a dismal opening weekend but the acting in this movie deserves Oscars. More importantly this movie has a message that all Americans need to hear and it had a powerful effect on me. I could relate to Richard Jewell in so many ways. First I could relate to him as a security officer. Jewell fit the stereotype of an overzealous, wannabe cop  security officer. Yet he proved to be a very good and conscientious officer who wanted to do a good job. The movie portrays how he found a bomb in a back pack during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and saved many lives by warning people to move out of range of the bomb. During my ten years as a mall security officer I have seen more than my share of worthless officers. With the pay scale and qualifications required I can see how that can happen. On the other hand I have seen just as many security officers that are professional and conscientious. The team I am working with now is the best I have ever worked with. Like Jewel we are frequently laughed at and mocked. I have heard pretty much every pejorative name that can be used against a security officer. Rent A Cop, Paul Blart, Barney Fife, wannabe and the list goes on. Many police officers speak to us in a condescending way, if they speak to us at all. This is not to disparage all police officers because most are respectful and I have many friends in law enforcement. Some customers try to ignore us or look at us with disdain as if we have no right to speak to them at all. 

Jewell's actions saved the lives of many people. I try to train my people to expect the worst but hope for the best. Most malls will never have an active shooter or a bomber but we can't let our guard down for a moment. We have to wonder why some guy is wearing a trench coat on a hot day or constantly be on the lookout for the suspicious backpack that has been lying around a little too long. Or that smell of smoke or gas. A few years ago my daughter was working for us when she smelled rotten eggs near a restaurant. Thinking there was a gas leak somewhere she called her supervisor and our off duty police officer. She also notified the restaurant manager who was very hateful to her and he refused to evacuate the restaurant. Like Jewell, on her own initiative, she called the gas company. They discovered two major gas leaks behind the restaurant. The gas had already traveled down into the sewer grate behind the restaurant. If the gas had somehow gotten into the building it could have caused a deadly explosion. A security officer might be the one who keeps your heart beating, or keeps you from bleeding to death until paramedics arrive on the scene. A few years ago one of my officers performed CPR on a man who had no pulse but he had one when paramedics loaded him into the ambulance. 

The other way that this movie affected me was the damage that the media is doing to innocent people in this country. From the average guy on the street like Richard Jewell to the president of this country. On Inside Edition they were crying the blues about how the Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs reputation was being defamed by the movie. The controversy is over whether or not Scruggs slept with her sources in order to get a story. In the movie she seduces an F.B.I. agent in order to get the scoop that Jewell is the prime suspect in the Atlanta Olympic bombing. Her defenders  on the AJC, and others that knew her, say that she never slept with her sources but there is no denying that she tried to destroy an innocent man with reckless abandon. Scruggs died of an accidental overdose in 2001 and her friends lament the fact that she is not around to defend her reputation. Well boo hoo!!! At least her reputation is being maligned after she died. Because of her, Richard Jewell, and his mother, went through a living hell while Jewell was alive. Jewell was a bonified hero and should have gotten a ticker tape parade. We have seen the media do this to multiple people over the years and for the last three years President Trump has had to endure it. The F.B.I also had a part in this travesty because in spite of the evidence to the contrary, they nearly ruined the life of an innocent man. I think that Clint Eastwood, by making this movie, is making a statement on the state of America today. In the beginning of the movie the lawyer, that would later represent Jewell, uses the term Quid Pro Quo after Jewell gave the lawyer a Snickers bar. This movie is a well timed and well deserved slam at the media and the Deep State.
Kathy Scruggs



  

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