A different cop story

In Tarrant, Alabama last Saturday, Officer William Stacy got a call to the Dollar General store where a woman had been caught stealing a carton of eggs.

She confessed on the spot – said she had $1.25, 50 cents short of what the eggs cost, so she just took them.

But instead of cuffing her, officer Stacy paid for the eggs, and asked the store manager not to press charges, because he recognized the woman.

Her name was Helen Johnson, and he’d been called to her home before. He knew she lived with her two daughters, her niece and two young grandchildren – and was trying to support them on a welfare check and a disability check.

He told her to promise not to shoplift again, then signed her up for the local Toy Drive.

The whole thing was caught on video by a customer, it went viral, and by Wednesday officer Stacy was delivering two truckloads of donated food to Helen Johnson’s apartment.

“I can’t believe that this has gotten this much attention but I’m happy it has – for the sake of law enforcement. For all the stuff going on in Ferguson, in New York City, it’s a positive image for law enforcement all across the United States.”

As for Helen Johnson, “This moment is going to last me a lifetime,” she said. “A lifetime.”

The cop is white, the woman is black, but no one got mad, and no one got hurt.

The secret wasn’t body cameras, or better schools, or economic equality, or police retraining. The secret was that the woman didn’t resist, and the cop knew the neighborhood. Which allowed him to see her as a person to be helped, instead of a suspect to be arrested.