ACLU Utah recently called out instances of police aggression toward protesters in a well-documented public statement. The police response, as reported by The Salt Lake Tribune, was completely devoid of reflection, remorse, or any sense of responsibility. Rather, the department spokesperson criticized ACLU Utah for using their platform to highlight these incidents rather than meeting privately with the police department (there is no legal or professional obligation for the ACLU, a national nonprofit, to consult with local police before releasing statements about publicly documented incidents), and went on to insist that use of force was necessary to protect officers from protestors.
Regardless of where you land on police reform, this steadfast refusal by the department to see beyond its own victim narrative and think critically about how it contributes to community tensions should concern you. When adults receive critique, they don’t respond with dismissal; the culture of rebuking accountability and treating the public as the enemy is dangerous for us all.
As a reminder, Salt Lake City PD: We pay your salary. We pay for the weapons you use on our neighbors, and we pay for the helmets, vests and riot shields that protect you when you charge unarmed protesters. For all the talk of tax dollars going toward spilled paint and shattered windows — what’s the public cost of this much overtime pay, use of low-flying helicopters, and deployment of enough officers to outnumber protestors four to one?
If you want to be private security without accountability to the public, stop taking our money. Until then, you work for us — and insisting that a couple dozen unarmed protesters with T-shirts and water bottles are equal in danger to a cadre of heavily armed officers protected by the full weight of the legal system? That won’t hold up forever.
Madalena McNeil, Salt Lake City