Humanitarian of the Year Award
Mr. Gordon Dillow
Orange County Register
Mr. Dillow is a byline writer at the Orange County Register newspaper in Orange County, California. He writes extensively about law enforcement topics and on current events dealing with law enforcement and has defended law enforcement and our military in his bylines. Mr. Dillow successfully conveys a positive message about law enforcement in many of his articles and gives law enforcement a fair shake when others, even from the same newspaper, resort to appealing to the negative views of law enforcement for cheap ratings. He realizes the nature of the job of the modern day law enforcement officer and does not have some “Hollywood” idea of how we do our jobs. Perhaps an unpopular stance for someone in the media to take, but a stance that is appreciated by our officers who too often get unfairly ridiculed and second-guessed by reporters who want to create drama for the sake of a good story.
Mr. Dillow understands the challenges of law enforcement and he is no stranger to encountering difficult and life-threatening situations himself. Gordon served as a U.S. Army Sergeant in Vietnam in 1971. In 1982, he was a correspondent in Central America, covering the civil war in El Salvador. And while with the Orange County Register, he and photojournalist Mark Avery were the first embedded journalists to cross into Iraq on the first night of the war in Iraq. They accompanied a Marine Infantry company all the way from Kuwait to Baghdad. Mr. Dillow understands the battles that our military and law enforcement personnel go through and he is not afraid to voice his support.
Mr. Dillow prides himself with his ability to educate the public on the positive side of law enforcement. In a February 4, 2007, article titled “County jail doors are always open,” he wrote about what goes on inside the confines of jail. The type of people who find themselves there and how the deputies put up with a variety of undesirables on a daily basis. An article written June 1, 2007, titled “A jolt for those who object to Tasers,” defends the use of Tasers. He spoke of the death of a chronic criminal who spent his Sunday evening cranked up on a “speedball” of heroin and cocaine. The guy decided to smash a bathroom window while burglarizing an apartment and began bleeding profusely. Officers struggled with the blood-covered male and opted to use a Taser gun, which did subdue him. He was taken into custody and died thereafter. With human-rights groups claiming the police killed this individual with the Taser, Gordon stood by his guns, claiming that the criminal, through preliminary indications, died from a drug overdose and that if the drugs hadn’t killed him, he probably would have bled out. He added in his article that one excellent way of avoiding potential health risks from getting shot by a Taser is to “refrain from getting skied up on powerful drugs and smashing windows to burglarize a home and then trying to fight it out with the cops.”
Law enforcement needs people like Mr. Gordon Dillow to educate the public of how police work really is and where officers stand on issues involving public safety. For his unwavering support of law enforcement and ability to educate the public of the favorable side of law enforcement, the Golden Badge Foundation is proud to present this year’s Humanitarian Award to Mr. Gordon Dillow.
