While there is no video in our archived story, there is a very implicit judge's order which gives a very in-depth look into what police brutality is really like.

This is not a soundbite story like a three-minute video designed to trip up a cop who did what he was sworn to do.

No, this story tells what it really means to have your rights violated and the family of the Scotland Neck man who died in 2011 went through proper channels without screaming, without cursing, without posting a video to YouTube in hopes it would get some attention where none was deserved.

Halifax County Sheriff Wes Tripp did the right thing by releasing a statement on the Bolling Road Dollar General video to put the kibosh on the matter right away, showing support for his officer who was simply trying to subdue an unruly person and turning over the YouTube video as well as his deputy's body camera video for evidence, which we believe will be enough to support the charges filed against the four people at Dollar General.

The story we reported on in May is void of the rabble-rousing taunts of we got it on GD video, something a frenzied woman screams in the Dollar General video, stomping her feet like a child in the middle of a temper tantrum.

And what has this GD video proven? Nothing, except it bolsters the case of the charges lodged against four people Monday.

This video should not be titled Police Brutality at Dollar General in Roanoke Rapids as it was on the streaming website YouTube. Instead, it should be aptly titled Regard for the Law Run Amuck at Dollar General in Roanoke Rapids because that's simply what it demonstrated after we watched it again and again. It's like the proverbial train wreck — you want to look away but you can't.

Our only criticism of law enforcement in this entire farce is one we've argued before — that it's time for a frank discussion on ending the prohibition of marijuana in this state.

That marijuana is not legal in this state, however, no matter how much you bellyache and dream in your nightly flights of fancy it should be, means going into a store smelling like a Harold and Kumar movie is probably your ticket to at least a citation and at the most jail.

When an officer smells the odor on you, he is well within his rights to detain you and your most reasonable course of action is to simply comply, not try to make this into a civil rights issue, which it clearly was not.

That a camera was on during this matter was probably the biggest mistake the one filming it made. There was no police brutality — only resistance. There was no beat down, as the one woman kept screaming as she made threats to call the NAACP for a matter that had no racial overtones whatsoever.

There was no broken arm as the woman resisting screamed. It was only a video that backed a pack of lies and showed how some people still cannot fathom the idea they could be in the wrong.

It was simply a case of an officer doing what he took a solemn oath to do — protect and serve despite some of the sage analysts of Facebook declaring the cursing, the lies of yet another cop mauling were a way to exercise outrage and a mysterious stand for freedom of speech when at the time of the arrest it was the officer's scene and not theirs.

Not once in this video did we hear anyone utter anything about the Constitution, give a finely tuned argument on why what they were seeing was a violation of the restrained woman's rights.

The only thing we heard was GD this and F that, and the part where, almost like an afterthought, a light bulb flicks on in the brain of the temper tantrum woman, saying she just remembered she could call the NAACP. All these vicious words spewed, we believe, were in an effort to try to undermine an officer who did his job with incredible restraint as snarling people approached him because they were mad and for what reason? Because their friend got caught?

So, yes, go to the story mentioned at the beginning of this editorial if you want to see a real police brutality story.

Unlike our story posted in May about the death of Roger Anthony, the video of the scene at Dollar General Monday was one that leaves us baffled at this sudden rush across the nation to vilify law enforcement officers and uplift those who break the law, even if marijuana was involved and ruins your fantasy it is legal.

We recognize there are bad officers, but in the past few months we have seen actions of good officers — the video of Roanoke Rapids Police Officer Jamie Hardy, the unity among law enforcement with the community this past weekend in Weldon, the annual National Night Out events to show officers are like the rest of us.

We will include the ridiculously titled Police Brutality at Dollar General in Roanoke Rapids video among the occurrences within the last few months because it showed Deputy Christopher Boden being very calm, cool and collective in a situation that could have turned ugly quick.

Yes, it is our contention your GD video backfired and in your haste to condemn yet another officer you only bolstered the officer's case when it comes to court.

So, please, dig into our archives and see what really constitutes police brutality and you will find it is nothing like the video from Dollar General — Editor