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In defense of sheriff
In reply to Karen Dorn Steele’s letter, “Sheriff smears, too.” Her reaction, along with the Democratic Party’s, to the sheriff speaking at an event put on by Republican and conservative groups in honor of our Republican president amazed me.
It brings to mind the same reaction Rep. Matt Shea and the alt-right had when Sheriff Ozzie put on two town hall meetings addressing extremism, including alt-right extremism and Shea’s association with it. I am familiar with all these events and saw the reactions.
The most troubling aspect is Dorn Steele all but calling the sheriff a racist for calling President Obama out. I looked up the statistics he mentioned. She must have missed the point. The sheriff was talking about ambush-style assassinations of police officers because of hate. In 2016, ambush-style killings: highest in two decades, tied with 1971 murders. You have to go back to 1932 to see the levels of 2016 (and 1971).
The current trend of assassinating police officers goes back to 2014 when two New York City police officers were killed in retaliation for events in that city and Ferguson, Missouri. The sheriff was pointing out this happened under Obama’s watch, and Obama failed to deal with it.
Beva Miles
Spokane Valley