October 20, 2022
Dear editor:
In their column October 18 in The Voice, “Drivers Must Know Their Rights When Stopped By Police.” John and Nisha Whitehead called this country, “the America police state.” Although they began by saying that they were not “disrespecting…lawful police officers,” they proceeded to characterize our entire police system as being violent and out of control. This kind of stereotyping is reminiscent of the defund police movement of 2020, when the media was saturated with stories about police brutality.
Two years after that movement began, arrests by police are down 24%, a possible indication that police are doing exactly what was requested of them. Unfortunately, murders are up 34%, violent crime is up 54%, and police forces around the country are experiencing serious shortages of new recruits. Although correlation doesn’t always mean causation, the numbers suggest the possibility that simply condemning police as a group has been counterproductive.
Unless, or until, a better strategy is found, I suspect that improved training and weeding out the bad actors is the most worthwhile approach.
Craig Zabel, Sugar Grove