Claims can only lead to paranoia about a nonexistent threat

Regarding Black Lives Matter, Larry Wood (Frontiersman, June 28), makes bizarre claims that can only lead to paranoia about a nonexistent threat. “A predator came to town…Violence is the standard, peace is the exception.” In reality, across the country, short periods of localized rioting and looting (if any) have been followed by massive peaceful protests. So, why Black Lives Matter, why this anger, and why the protests? To start with, the list of unarmed and nonthreatening Black people killed by police as caught on camera (with no real accountability) is too long to list; and what does that say about what has happened off-camera for hundreds of years? Even during the protests, practically all the significant injuries (some very serious) have been inflicted on protesters by police. Woods states that the event was sponsored and organized by “a communist atheist group that openly calls for the overthrow of the U.S. government, the killing of cops…” Does he mean Black Lives Matter? They are not a “communist atheist group,” and every word of his statement is false. This is the kind of vicious slander that can only lead to more hate and fear among Whites. And that is the last thing we need. A better example has been provided by those police who have expressed their sympathy with the protesters, because they understand that the protesters are only exercising their First Amendment rights (and for good reason). Apparently some cops understand this much better than Woods does. If only all police departments were like that. As for me, I have been educated by innumerable reports from people of color about their constant, low-level anxiety for themselves and their children, focused on the risk of contact with police no matter what they may be doing, or not doing. As a White man, I have not had that problem, so it would have been easy for me to think it’s not there.

Phil Somervell

Palmer