To the editor:
The problem with the Unitarian Church’s Black Lives Matter banner is that it implies police officers are a bunch of bullies, increases polarization and looks for simplistic causes to deep, complex problems.
Sure there are bad cops in the same way there are bad doctors, bad attorneys and bad CEOs. The police need to be mental-health counselors, sociologists, public relations experts, and also make split-second decisions while dodging those nitwits videotaping them and trying not to be shot in the face, as happened to one New Hampshire officer, or assassinated, as happened to the Asian and Hispanic officers in New York.
Chicago has the highest murder rate of any city in the United States. In November 2015 a 9-year-old was lured into an alley and killed because his father was a member of a rival gang. A teenager in that city who pleaded for an end to the violence was recently killed in the crossfire between rival gangs. That astute politician, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, recently replaced various police officials in response to police shootings. Problem solved.
The Baltimore prosecutor in the Grey death sat on the coroner’s report for three months until it was leaked to the press, because it didn’t back up her assumptions on the cause of Grey’s death and her assessment of police culpability. How does that help anything? In the meantime, murder rates in both cities have skyrocketed, I would venture to guess, because police are afraid to do their job.
It is my secret wish that the banner wavers live for awhile in a high-crime city as I have. They might then begin to focus on problem solving rather than politically correct finger pointing.
I wonder why anyone would want to be a police officer today, given the dangers and relentless criticism. The blue line is very thin, but I’m grateful it exists. Thank you officers for your service.
Diana Starr Daniels
Greenville