Fantasy Patrol

Shaquille O'Neal wants to play cop. Despite immense wealth and notoriety, O’Neal became a reserve police officer. Upon retirement, his delusion is a law enforcement career. On Sunday evening, a car sideswiped O’Neal’s Cadillac. O’Neal and his bodyguard pursued the offender. O’Neal then accosted him at a gas station.

Should I recount how O’Neal’s actions were stupid? What if the offender would have had a gun? Not withstanding O’Neal’s size, he is not immune to bullets. If the driver had emerged from his car firing, O’Neal would have been dead. What if his car had crashed? What if the offender had chosen high speed? O’Neal could have died or been critically injured.

America has thousands of skilled police officers. O’Neal is not one of them. He is not a citizen engaged in his community. He is a dense adolescent with the means to indulge his fantasies. O’Neal’s actions were callous, reckless, and infantile. They endangered himself and his team. They are an illustration of his absolute incompetence.