RIP, irony. You’re deader than J.R. Ewing

Betty BeanKnox Scene

Irony, or something like it, died on the Knox County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page this week.

The mortal wound was delivered in a one-two punch in the form of two official KCSO posts. (Scroll down 4-5 posts.)

The first was a modified account of an alleged lunch counter slight supposedly dealt to three deputies who believed they were refused service when they attempted to order lunch Monday at McAlister’s Deli on Schaad Road. It included a disclaimer from Sheriff Tom Spangler branding this “an isolated incident,” and expressing the hope that the community could “move on” from said isolated incident.

Kimberly Glenn

This was a follow-up to a now-deleted complaint posted by Spangler’s communications director, Kimberly Glenn, on her own Facebook page Monday about deputies suffering discrimination at the deli counter. Glenn’s post was angry, and quite different from the above-mentioned message, which appeared the next day.

The official KCSO response has received more than 2,000 comments: many supportive, some scathing.

Reading through a plethora of posts, the whole thing appears to have been a painful happenstance rather than a deliberate slight.

The deputies were lined up to order lunch. An employee who would have waited on them needed to be relieved as cashier so she could finish up her side work before her shift was over.

The officers believed they had been slighted. They complained and left.

But there’s more to the story. The cashier, by multiple accounts, is the 15-year-old sister of the late Anthony Thompson Jr., the Austin-East High School student who died last year when he was shot by a city police officer after he carried a gun into a school restroom.

There is no evidence that she insulted anyone or made any kind of commotion. She is 15 and likely is working her first job. Meanwhile, Glenn’s intemperate post unleashed a furor of Back the Blue vitriol.

The story has been batted around online where it inevitably has morphed in many different directions. The usual suspects are picking their favorite versions. Meanwhile, a very young teenager is left drowning in the backwash created by a hasty post shared on social media by someone who was not a witness to what happened.

It has long been standard practice for local law enforcement agencies (KCSO, the Knoxville Police Department, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, etc.) to hire journalists who are, presumably, familiar with how news is supposed to work. Spangler hired Glenn, a Realtor who ran his 2018 election campaign and has family members who are employed by KCSO. She replaced Martha Dooley, who had been news director at WATE-TV before being hired by the sheriff’s office a couple of decades ago.

I’ll skip the details of Dooley’s long-running legal battles and ultimate resignation from Knox County since they aren’t really germane to this issue except for costing the county a fortune in legal fees.

Glenn, whose annual salary is $86,000 and change, had a rough rookie season, but has suffered no discernible long-term consequences beyond drawing lots of off-the-record criticism in the courthouse.

This link to WBIR-TV’s story late Wednesday quotes the mother of the McAlister’s cashier saying her daughter had lost her job. This story continues to unfold.

I nearly forgot to say who killed irony. The perp was a subsequent official KCSO post announcing a four-day, Media and Public Relations seminar for law enforcement agencies to be conducted in January by the FBI at the KCSO Regional training facility.

“This course will guide the participants to promoting a consistent and positive public image of the department, enabling the community to perceive their police as a transparent organization they can depend on and trust.”

PS: Someday I’ll tell you a story about being a police reporter. It’s a doozy.

Betty Bean writes a Thursday opinion column for KnoxTNToday.com.

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