Unprofessional behavior
During the early evening of Monday, June 20, 2016, there was a large number or people — primarily adults — on beach access 4 since it was a beautiful evening with the full moon rising.
At approximately 8:45 pm, a white police truck drove north-bound up the beach near the dunes and stopped short of several gatherings of people. It was obvious that people were in the way. An officer leaned out the driver’s side and gruffly yelled “everybody move!” There was no further information. Many of us, myself included, moved beach chairs and other articles in the wrong direction, towards the dunes, when in fact we subsequently learned we should have moved them away from the dunes. The truck remained where it was as this confusion continued.
I approached the truck and yelled “which way.” That prompted a young, uniformed officer — I believe the same one who yelled the move order — to leave the vehicle, approach me in a hostile fashion and accuse me abusing him with “attitude.” As far as others and I could tell, it was he who had the attitude. After the confusion was cleared up, articles were moved in the correct direction and the truck passed so an emergency lane could be opened; a requirement everyone understood.Several beachgoers stated the obvious: all the police had to do was have one officer leave the truck and tell people which way to move. Instead, it was an unnecessarily belligerent, hostile and unprofessional encounter.
We appreciate the police have a difficult and important job. But is this the way Wrightsville Beach wants its police to be viewed?
Robert L. Nevin, Jr.
