Article By Geoffrey Ingersoll
WE CAN BE HEROES
There’s a lot of terrible news flying around basically all the time now. Virginia is nuts. Minneapolis is totally schized out. California’s a wasteland. Congress is more irrelevant by the day.
Every now and then in the sea of outrage content online, however, you find a gem. One worth saving, and certainly one worth highlighting.
John P. Johnson, 37, of Lorain, Ohio, was free on “community control” for a conviction in 2025 of marijuana trafficking, possession and weapons charges. Each count was a felony, which means he wasn’t carrying a small amount of marijuana when he was caught — at least 200g and possibly as high as a kilo or more. The weapons charge along with the trafficking and possession carries a sentence of up to 5 years.
For some reason, one which you can all probably guess, some judge in or around the Cleveland area decided Johnson and his neck tattoos and gun charges should still roam free.
I had Gemini give me a description of “community control” and this is what it said:
Community control is an intensive, court-ordered, supervised form of custody served in the community rather than prison, acting as a strict alternative to incarceration. It involves high-level surveillance, including home confinement, electronic monitoring, random drug testing, and frequent officer visits. It restricts movement, usually requiring offenders to remain home except for approved activities like work or treatment.
Whatever “high-level surveillance” and “electronic monitoring” they put on Johnson wasn’t enough, because less than a year later, last week, he was robbing a Brinks money truck that was pulled up beside an AT&T store.
Reporting hasn’t revealed her name yet, but a mother of four in the Olmsted residential region outside Cleveland was arriving home with her four children at about 4 p.m. that same day.
She was probably returning from some pickup lines outside school and daycare.
She had gotten two kids into the home when Johnson ran up out of nowhere, visibly armed, pushed past the other two kids and shouted for Mom to get inside.
A frightened AT&T store employee witnessed the robbery and called police. The employee gave officers a description of the vehicle and the perpetrator.
Police located the vehicle and a high-speed chase ensued. It spanned two Ohio counties and hit speeds above 90 mph. It could have ended tragically right there, but police managed to get a spike strip in front of the vehicle.
It crashed, but Johnson disembarked and fled into the nearby community.
The police cruiser pulls up behind Johnson less than five seconds after he gained entry to the home. As previously mentioned, there are two kids still outside on the walkway up to the house.
The responding officer flies out of the vehicle at a dead sprint, yelling at the kids. Their first response is to move to the door. Finally he’s audible: “Get back, get back, get back!” he’s shouting at them.
They obey his commands and seconds later his foot meets the door. Without knowing what was on the other side, in one swift kick, the officer breaks into the home and there in front of him is Johnson with a handgun.
The officer instantly lets fly with a volley of shots.
Seconds later, the mother and two kids flee out the front door behind the officer, safe and sound and probably startled beyond belief.
Here’s the Ring cam video of the whole thing. I also read a couple news reports on it.
I’m sure there’s more to this whole backstory with the now-dead John P. Johnson. Rather than prepare ourselves to rage at how a liberal judicial system put dozens of lives at risk with a guy like Johnson, let’s take a minute to focus on the spirit of America.
It’s a Wednesday afternoon in Cleveland and you’re a beat police officer. You’re woefully underpaid, half the country hates you, and liberal judges are determined to make your already dangerous job even more dangerous.
Nonetheless, you have a duty and it’s one you deeply believe in serving.
You can see it in the video plain as day. There is zero hesitation for this man to put his life on the line for five innocent civilians.
It’s truly breathtaking when you stop and think about it.
There’s so much that’s bad in the world these days, but I’m here to tell it to you straight, Dear Reader, no ice, no mixer.
We can be heroes. We are heroes.
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