Value life over law

In response to Sheriff Knezovich (Spokesman-Review, July 2), please let the days of whine and roses be over! This community can no longer tolerate the decades of law enforcement whining about how dangerous and underpaid the job is, how nobody appreciates the progress they’ve made, how the Black community doesn’t speak with one voice and how they don’t have solutions, how they only want to complain in public and not one-to-one, how they take everything out of context and misconstrue reality, and how they “attach race to everything.” Yellow-ribbon accolades from other officials don’t help either.

But the international demand is now very clear: stop the killing, especially people from the Black and Brown Community, those suspected of nonviolent crimes, those who behave strangely, those who are running away, those with a hand in their pocket, and those who do not obey an allegedly legal command. If we don’t start valuing life over law, there will never be peace.

Killing, whether it’s called murder, suicide, capital punishment, law enforcement, or war never resolves conflict, because only the living can hope for justice. Solutions are not up to the community. They are the responsibility of law enforcement, which must prove understanding of the demand and change the rules of engagement.

The ideal goal is the complete elimination of lethal force, and the police need to explain how they plan to reach for that goal. Then the community can negotiate the details. If you can’t do this, Mr. Knezovich, you should seek other employment.

Cris M. Currie

Mead