Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Steve Doocy were dumbfounded this morning, something which many may argue happens every morning. A Raleigh, North Carolina police officer, less than one year after a man tried to stab him, is pictured embracing the man, the two men, are all smiles.
Hasselbeck: Well it's an unbelievable picture. a police officer reunited with the man, who, at one time, tried to stab him to death.
Steve Doocy: Oh Brother!
Officer J.D. Boyd described an incident that occurred in October, 2014. The officer describes his involvement in trying to break up a domestic incident between a man and a woman. The male in the fight was, unbeknownst to him, armed with a knife. The altercation between the man, Cory Sanders and Officer Boyd became very heated and Sanders took a swing at Boyd's head with the knife, narrowly missing him. He managed to subdue Sanders and the incident ended, for once, without a black man ending up seriously wounded or dead. That detail awestruck both Hasselbeck and Doocy.
Recently, when on patrol, he saw the girlfriend, Kendra Powell, and asked how things were going. He saw Cory pull away and said he'd wait for him to return. When he did, they started talking, Cory since straightened out his life since the incident and found common ground. They posed for the picture. Hasselbeck, asked Boyd,
'Tell us what's going on here in this picture?'
The Root explains his Facebook post:
"Almost a year ago this man and I were involved in a major altercation where he tried to stab me in the head and I nearly shot him," the police officer wrote in a Facebook post that included a photo of himself and Sanders. "Today we ran into each other again and I learned that after his time in prison and some help from probation he now has a full time job."
"I was glad it ended well for us both that day," he wrote, "and I am ecstatic now to learn that he has turned his life around and we can embrace as friends."
Boyd's message received more than 180,000 likes.
"No one is ever lost forever," he wrote. " ... things will work out eventually."
At Fox and Friends, there must have been a caveat that precluded the happy ending: God must have mercifully intervened. How, you may ask? The "Lord" sent a savior to help Cory Sanders become a better man. It wasn't a cop who acted reasonably, as a cop is supposed to act, it was 'God,' putting in his two cents. When his girlfriend spotted the photo on Boyd's Facebook page, the Fox News graphic said this:
"We are so grateful God put you in our path and he was given a second chance. God has a purpose for his life. It was a life changing experience cause it made us stronger. You can see a whole 360 from last year. You were truly a God sent angel."
The story portrayed by a more socially liberal site, has a different take, altogether:
"Thank you so much officer Boyd for everything you did for me and my boyfriend that day," wrote Kendra Powell. "People don't really know the story ... that day could have been way worst [sic]. I love this story and I actually can speak on it and know this is the real deal!"
It's pretty funny how one photo could be interpreted so differently. The people at Fox 'News' think that a police officer not shooting a hostile black man must have been divine intervention, while another, more progressive site, thanks the officer for acting rationally, as he should. Doocy proclaims that a person is never really lost forever, forgiveness is a wonderful thing. Too bad that doesn't pertain to President Obama. They can't forgive him for all the conjured up acrimony that they throw at the man who virtually ended a depression and got Bin Laden.
