As if Cole Berardi's parents weren't having a hard enough week. Their ten-year-old snuck out of their Dallas, Texas home to bike to a friend's house, only to be clipped by a speeding police cruiser and thrown to his death. Then the police department sent a tape of the tragedy to the media.
Although my job depends on the freedom of the press and the protection of the freedom of information act, I have to wonder if this isn't taking things one step too far. Fortunately for Berardi's parents, the TV station which received the tape opted not to play it in its entirety. Instead the clip shows the cruiser's dashboard camera, with speed documented well above the thirty mile-per-hour limit without flashing lights or siren. Then it turns to a still image of a figure, barely discernible, in the center of the roadway. The rest of the story the news crew opted to tell through narration and clips from an interview with Cole's dad, Brett Inman.
Imagine your ten-year-old son's death playing out on a TV screen. You can't, can you; or at least you wouldn't want to. The Dallas Police Department said they gave the parents first crack at the tape before releasing it to the media, but the family says they weren't given time to respond. Their child died just a week ago, and the tape is already in the hands of a TV station.
It happened on a public roadway, which technically makes images of the accident part of the public domain. Anyone with a video camera who just happened to be there would be well within their rights to supply the media with the tape. Technically, the TV crew would be well within their rights to play it. That's protected under the First Amendment.
But who wants to see it? Should parents have the right to put the kibosh on something like this?
Image: DallasPolice.net
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