The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Comments on policing, search for solutions
From a July 13 statement by U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, announcing his appointment to a bipartisan working group on policing strategies:
Recent events in America have brought forth a national discussion on violence, law enforcement, community relations, and accountability. I am honored to be named to this working group, where I will draw upon my life experiences as a Baptist pastor, an attorney, and the son of a Georgia state trooper, to help foster a productive dialogue. We are not here to point fingers, but rather to find solutions.
From an Aug. 15 posting on the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal website about the congressional working group:
“I have been there before, where your life is threatened and you have to make a split decision,” said (U.S. Rep. Dave) Reichert, R-Wash. (Reichert is a former patrol officer and sheriff ). “I have been in battles where my throat has been slashed with a butcher knife, where I had a shotgun stuck to my belly, and each time I was able to resolve the situation without using force.”
Reichert says the primary focus of the working group will be to support programs and policies that encourage better training standards and stronger hiring practices to prevent violent police-citizen confrontations.
“I think most police chiefs and sheriffs would tell you a lot of the communities they serve are in a crisis,” Reichert said.
From a July web post by William B. Scott, a former U.S. Air Force test pilot whose son Erik, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, was shot and killed in 2010 by Nevada police:
Yes, the majority of police officers truly are good people, professionals dedicated to protecting and serving, and they’re rightly being hailed as heroes today. But good lawmen are being targeted and killed because they’ve looked the other way, tolerating ruthless killer-cops in their midst. All in the name of a Mafia-like code of Blue Silence and illogical solidarity that infects every police department and law enforcement agency in the U.S.