America is known for its “call out” culture, but society has taken it too far this time.
The first time I saw the horrid picture, I could not believe what was on my screen.
Last week, an Ohio police department released an image that showed two parents unconscious in the front of their car with their four year old son sitting in the backseat. The parents had overdosed on heroin.
The image circulated Facebook for many days.Every time I saw it, I became angrier.
My issue does not lie with the content of the photo, but the fact that the photo was blasted all over social media.
So many people commented on how awful it was that the parents would even operate the vehicle while under the influence of drugs, nonetheless with their child in their car, but no one seemed to care that this image was so heavily broadcasted.
Yes, the photo contained very sensitive images and sends a very strong message, but exposing a family and a young child is not appropriate anti-drug propaganda.
The first time I saw the images, I thought the parents were dead. Many news headlines were claiming the parents to be dead and thus misleading the audience. When I learned the parents were just unconscious, I couldn’t believe articles were circulating with false information.
By disagreeing with the release of this photo, I am definitely not encouraging or condoning drug culture.
It’s quite sad to me that people can’t stop and think about how this will affect the child rather than sharing the image thousands of times so it goes viral.
The police department did not even have the grace to blur the child’s face out of the pictures. It’s a shocking image to see a child so young staring straight at the camera with his parents passed out in the front.
However, the official Facebook page that originally released the photos did a fair job of warning the audience beforehand about the content of the photos.
The police defend their posting by saying it “showed the other side of (heroin).”
“The whole ordeal will help the child in the long run,” Chief of Police John Lane said in an interview with CNN released Monday.
I do not agree in the slightest. The child will only be burdened by these photos and the reputation his parents have created alongside them.
The parents have received charges, which they deserve, but that should have been the only mode of punishment given. The release of photos almost feels like a punishment to me.
Without the photo being publicized, the child would have received the same amount of help and support from his community and the police department.
Media is supposed to show the hard and difficult facts of a situation, but when it involves children and family situations, I believe media should stick to words and facts.
This picture speaks a thousand words the child will never forget.
mmgarbac@indiana.edu
