To the editor:
In the 17th century, many people in the Massachusetts Bay Colony town of Salem believed in witches, and several people were executed for being witches or consorting with the devil. Of course, there were no witches in Salem.
Americans today are discussing race relations, particularly as it applies to inner-city relations between blacks and police. There is a belief that an epidemic of racially motivated police shootings of black males is occurring. This belief is false.
Searching FBI and Department of Justice figures reveals that only about 5 percent of police shootings are questionable. Most police shootings are of whites and Hispanics, and many police shootings of blacks are by black officers. The total number of police officers who have been found guilty of unjustifiable homicide of blacks is small.
Based on my decades of teaching inner-city youth and my conversations with black males and their families, I consider the cause of inner-city violence to be based, primarily, on the absence of fathers in the family structure.
There are racial problems in America, but they are not of the kind described in the media. Educational problems are a root cause also of poor employment opportunities. The solution lies with school vouchers and the creation of more charter schools geared towards inner-city youth.
America’s police are the best in the world. They are not the source of racism. Years ago, when I taught democratic values to teachers in eastern Europe after the end of communism, they were most surprised when I told them that I felt safe when police were around. Police in non-free countries represent the political party in power. American police do not do that.
We are more than our skin color. Reducing everything to skin color is such an oversimplification that it does more harm than good.
Rick Sirvint
Rindge