Police brutality and rioting are both evil
Printed in the Herald-Times, July 3, 2020
To the Editor:
When undercover police officers were selling drugs on Isaac Singletary’s front lawn, he attempted to chase them off. The police then killed a citizen attempting to protect his property from what he thought were criminals. Kathryn Johnston thought she was about to be a victim of a home invasion during a no-knock SWAT raid, and attempted to defend herself. She was shot dead. Singleton was 80. Johnston was 92.
Bounkham Phonesavanh was only one year old when police threw a flash bang grenade into his crib, severely burning him during a no-knock SWAT raid to find a suspect who did not live at the home they raided.
The death of George Floyd was just another in a long line of examples in excessive use of force by law enforcement. There is no justification for kneeling on a man’s neck for eight minutes while he begged for his life.
Rioting, looting, burning down buildings (which is dangerous and threatens the lives of firefighters and nearby residents) and savagely beating people is an obscenely disproportionate reaction to this brutality. Rioters are not in favor of justice. They are thugs and degenerates, and must be stopped with overwhelming force.