Editorial - Don't spread reckless rumors!

The shooting outside the Red River County jail Friday morning was serious enough, but we're concerned over how fast people began to spread information that was exaggerated and wrong.
That's the nature of gossip and rumors. It's a fascinating insight into human nature, how information repeated from person to person gets inflated and goes negative.

In cases like this, you need to repeat information from reliable news sources. The problem today is that social media, such as Facebook, make it too easy to grab a keyboard and spread reckless rumors.

We got on-line as soon as we could yesterday and posted on Facebook so people would know what was known - and what was not definitely known - about the incident. After a few hours we became concerned that people were using the comments on that posting to spread rumors, and we deleted it and transferred the information to our web page. where people are more reluctant to post comments.

If you are going to repeat information from other people, try to listen carefully and think about what is being said, because a lot of these rumors seem to be the result of inattention.

For example, it's s small difference in language from saying "A deputy shot a suspect" to "A suspect shot a deputy". In the first case, it sounds like law enforcement did its job. In the second case, you'll start a panic -how evil must a suspect be to shoot a deputy?

Also, being shot doesn't equal being killed. We've made that mistake ourselves. But then the rumor ratchets up. Now it becomes "A suspect shot and killed a deputy."

Next level up, people assume s criminal so powerful as to  shoot and kill a deputy in broad daylight must have escaped! "Now it's "A suspect shot and killed a deputy and is on the loose." At this point, people start reaching for their guns, and a dangerous panic is the making.

We understand how these rumors get started and spread. This kind of incident is uncommon in Red River County - there's just not a lot of experience with it. Also, it happened in broad daylight, which seems to have made it more spectacular.

The only thing everyone seems to have gotten right is the location. Otherwise, at some point we've heard many almost everything else wrong , including:

The suspect was in the jail. WRONG. The suspect was at the jail.

The shooting happened the previous night. WRONG. The rumors spread so fast someone must have assumed the news couldn't have traveled that fast, and so they thought it happened Thursday night. The danger of this rumor is that it makes it sound like there were two shootings - and more panic ensues.

The suspect was at large. WRONG. The suspect did leave the scene - in a helicopter. The CISD went on a short lockdown after the report of the shooting. The school district wants to make every possible effort to make sure students are safe. In this case, there was no danger, but people would agree they should err on the side of caution when making decisions about student safety.

Deputies were shot or hurt. WRONG. Just because someone is involved in a shooting doesn't mean they get hurt themselves. It's a credit to the training and professionalism of our local law enforcement  officers that no one else, including themselves, was injured.

If you want more and faster news to feed your gossip - too bad. A shooting like this, by law enforcement, is a serious matter, and must be carefully documented and investigated. We're sure we will have a much clearer picture of what happened by next week when the paper comes out.

In the meantime, think twice before repeating gossip on Facebook and other social media, for your sake as well as Clarksville's sake. Starting a panic or sending vigilante mobs into the streets will not benefit anyone.