Absurdity prevails; the joke's on us

My original intent today was to pen some pithy and hopefully humorous April Fools' column where you concoct some unbelievable absurdity that defies the imagination only to end the tale with the obligatory, "April Fools!"

But it quickly became apparent that the actual headlines of the day provide their own April Fools opportunity.

Only this time, the joke's on us.

Last Friday in Boston, two members of the city's gang unit were on patrol when they stopped a car driven by 41-year-old Angelo West.

As the two officers approached the vehicle -- their guns still in their holsters -- West exited the car and immediately fired his .357 Magnum into the face of officer John Moynihan.

Before the story goes any further, let's look at Moynihan and West.

Moynihan is a former Army Ranger who served his nation in Iraq. You might recall his name because in the chaos that followed the Boston Marathon bombing, Moynihan came to the rescue of a fellow Boston police officer wounded by the two fleeing terrorists. He dragged his comrade to safety, stopped his bleeding and saved his life.

For his actions, he received the Boston Medal of Honor and was presented the Top Cop award by President Obama during a White House ceremony.

While Moynihan was rescuing a fellow officer, West was in prison for shooting at two other police officers over a decade ago.

And last Friday night, these two completely different men from widely different backgrounds crossed paths.

So the story continues.

As Moynihan lay critically wounded on the city street, his partner and West exchanged gunfire. West was killed in the gunfight.

As you would expect, a crowd quickly gathered. But their response was not what would be expected from a sane, rational, civilized crowd.

Even in the face of massive evidence including videotape from a surrounding business showing that West fired without provocation or warning, the crowd put their race hats on.

With shouts of "Ferguson, Ferguson" and "Hands up, don't shoot," the crowd immediately branded this crime as an assault by law enforcement on an innocent victim.

This is the point in the story where you should yell "April Fools," this never happened.

But, in fact, it did happen and as we know with so many other versions, this is becoming commonplace in today's polarized society.

Until we get beyond this massive racial divide, the whole of society is in jeopardy.

When facts and reality no longer matter in the social media empire, we will witness all civil discourse evaporate into societal chaos.

The facts of the Michael Brown episode were quickly lost in the false narrative that ignited a firestorm of social unrest.

But there was absolutely no murkiness in Boston. The facts were and remain abundantly clear that a career criminal shot a law enforcement officer in what amounted to an ambush.

And yet within some segments of society, the facts are irrelevant to the greater narrative of racial abuse and profiling.

We do, indeed, have problems within our society. But none is as great as the war on law enforcement and the rules of a civilized society.

Michael Jensen is the publisher of the Sikeston Standard Democrat.