Dori: Why is a hero being given a suspension?

My hope and giddiness from earlier this week have been overwhelmed in a tidal wave of reality of the madness in which we live — though of course, I am still optimistic about the tide turning.

RELATED: Seattle policeman who stopped ax-man faces suspension

KOMO 4’s Joel Moreno originally reported about a guy who went into the REI downtown, stole an ice ax, held it over his head to threaten the employees, and then went out on the street with it. Seattle police officers followed him. They have this all on video. You can see it — the cops are following him about 50 feet away. Every once in a while he will turn around, look at the cops, and raise the ax up over his head like he’s going to attack them.

How do these stories often end? With the cops having to shoot the guy. And then there’s all this outrage from people wondering why the cops didn’t do something less lethal.

In this case, Seattle Police Officer Nick Guzley did something that is absolutely heroic. The guy with the ax took his eye off the cop, then Guzley ran in, wrapped him in a bear hug, and took the guy to the ground. The guy was definitely having some kind of mental episode and would have been capable of sticking the ax into someone’s head. Guzley risked his own life to take the guy down. And no one was injured.

This officer is now being investigated for “failure to de-escalate,” and there is a recommended two-day suspension without pay. He is awaiting a potential discipline trial. They didn’t shoot him, they didn’t taze him, and the recommendation from this cop’s supervisor is a two-day suspension without pay. What is more de-escalating than an action where no one is hurt?

I so love and respect the men and women who serve in our police departments, but I cannot imagine who would want to do that job these days. You shoot someone and the public riots about you; you bear-hug someone and your supervisors go after you.

Officer Nick Guzley looks like an absolute hero to me. No one got hurt, and a situation with a madman and a ice ax was diffused. This is an outrageous story.

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