Via PostBourgie we learn that a police union in White Plains, New York, gave its officer of the year award to a cop who shot and killed a college football player, Danroy Henry Jr. The officer, Aaron Hess, got the award "for his dignity and professionalism since the October shooting and throughout his career."
As my blogmate blackink12 says, we certainly don't know anything else about the career of Hess, but the important thing is that he shot a 20-year-old and the circumstances are still in dispute. A family is grieving. Officer of the year awards aren't doled out by some objective metric in which the relationships with the wider community can't be taken into account and, if nothing else, the department should have thought about the message and insensitivity this would communicate to the entire community. If Hess has been doing penance since the October shooting, or if he's been working hard to rehabilitate his image, or if he's been trying to make amends in whatever way he can when the Henry family, or whatever other possible good acts he could be doing, then it's not worthy of an award. That's just as it should be; he killed a man, and contrition is the proper response.
