A Black man and a police officer were involved in yet another brutal murder this past Saturday on the streets of St. Louis, Mo. Why did this not make headlines across the nation? The reason: Tamarris Bohannon, father of three, husband, and some mother’s son, was both the Black man and the police officer.
This past Tuesday, The Tribune published a cartoon by their often hilarious and talented cartoonist, Pat Bagley. The theme of this cartoon was that the culminating problem with law enforcement, as represented by a Klansman’s hooded profile revealed via X-ray, is that all policemen and policewomen are racist to the core, to their very bones.
If this is truly the viewpoint of The Tribune staff, why then do we not celebrate each death of a police officer as a liberating moment in our American story? Why was there a solemn caravan rather than a celebratory parade in Ogden this past May after our fellow Utahn, James Lyday, was shot and killed? Why do we not celebrate the year 2019, where we as Americans set the all-time record for police officer suicides?
Surely significant changes must occur in policies in which police take action, both for our protection and theirs. These changes cannot take place before we take a good hard look at the social policies which gave birth to police policies. I doubt the coroner found a Klansman inside Bohannon the following morning. We are better than this. Let us stop these hurtful attacks. Everything matters, not just lives.
Josh Adams, Orem