There can be benefits from press sometimes tattling

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” — George Orwell

There are times it pays to tell the truth, even when it’s frowned on or verboten. In my more than 50 years in community journalism, I have come to understand that people in power will make a truth-teller’s life miserable.

In some cases, people like me are treated with amusement, like a gadfly. In other cases, we are regarded as social lepers.

I’ve taken a lot of abuse for telling the truth because the truth was shocking and unpleasant. One of the most recent examples was the violent suicide of a local teen-ager.

But now I hear tell there will be a special fund-raising dinner next Sunday to benefit Allegan County deputy Dillon Kibby, who was the victim of violent rage from a Dorr resident when the officer responded to a complaint of a disturbance.

I was told I shouldn’t release the deputy’s name because in this country we respect the privacy of the victim. This line of thinking was prevalent even from some local broadcast and print outlets which proudly stated they would not reveal Kibby’s identity immediately after the story broke.

As far as I know, I was the only community journalist who reported his name at that juncture and there were some who were critical about my decision. My thinking was that we so often praise public safety officers who respond to citizens’ pleas for help, and sometimes they pay a price when confronting wrongdoers who are violent.

Such is what happened to deputy Kibby, who suffered injuries bad enough to have him hospitalized.

Now comes community spirited people such as the owners of the McDuff’s Restaurant in downtown Wayland, who want to help the officer with expenses associated with his misfortune. The restaurant has posted very public notices of a meal and event to benefit Deputy Dillon Kibby.

If his name had not been reported eventually in the media, residents and readers very well could be reacting with the question, “Who’s Deputy Dillon Kibby?” To be sure, McDuff’s could have posted that proceeds would go to the officer who was seriously injured in a violent confrontation last month in Dorr.

But that’s too much work in trying to understand what’s happening and why. Just saying the benefit was for Deputy Kibby was enough.