A Vermont state trooper plunged into a frigid pond and pulled out an 8-year-old girl who had fallen through the ice while playing with siblings. The child survived and fully recovered after a brief hospital stay.
The girl and her younger sister fell through the thin ice on the pond on private property in the town of Cambridge on Dec. 17, state police said in a news release Friday. The 80-year-old homeowner was able to pull the younger girl to shore but couldn’t reach the older girl, so called 911, officials said.
Trooper Michelle Archer was nearby and arrived less than five minutes later, police said. She pulled a rope and flotation device from her cruiser, ran to the pond and swam to the girl, according to body camera video released by state police. She swam back to shore with the girl, and a second trooper who arrived as she was bringing her out of the water carried the child to a waiting ambulance.
The girl was taken to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington for treatment of injuries that at first were thought to be life-threatening, police said. She has made a complete recovery and returned home.
But that is a premise that has yet to be established. So goes another adage that if a good person is told they’re bad and worthless long enough, they’ll eventually believe they’re bad and worthless. So rather than promote this fast-track downward spiral / feedback-loop — call it what you will — perhaps we promote those who are on the straight & narrow their entire career? Cultures can change and police forces elsewhere reflect this pretty clearly. While the problem is systemic in nature, I just see nothing of value resorting to a literal blanket-generalization logical fallacy and using the ACABs rhetoric.
She is literally not a bastard. A career as a cop does not make someone a bastard in of itself without looking at the broader context. That is another common fallacy: Guilt by Association. What if she joined because, “if only bad people ever apply, how will it ever reform”?