(Editor’s note: This statement was published on the Lincoln Police Department’s Facebook page on May 29, 2020 and is reprinted here with permission.)
By Kevin Kennedy
To the Lincoln community:
Today, I join my fellow Massachusetts Police Chiefs and law enforcement across the country in condemning the actions and inactions of the four Minneapolis police officers involved in the death of Mr. George Floyd on May 25, 2020. Our thoughts and sympathy are with the Floyd family.
As a police department, we have embraced the six pillars of the President’s Task Force on 21st-Century Policing. We are committed to our standards of professional conduct, community policing, procedural justice, constitutional policing, and treating everyone with respect, dignity, empathy, and compassion.
The conduct of the officers involved was offensive to the values of our department and our community.
Sincerely,
A. Kevin Kennedy
Lincoln Chief of Police
”My Turn” is a forum for Lincoln residents to offer their views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.
It isn’t just MInneapolis policing that you should condemn. There is a long list of murders of African Americans and massive use of excessive force by local police all over the country.
Police all over the country have been militarized and trained by the IDF (I believe the police in Bedford have used IDF training?). Many in the police use excessive force all the time – NYC, LA, Chicago especially – and are rarely, if ever, held accountable because it is what they are trained to do.
In 1962, John F. Kennedy famously said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
you all need to read this excellent article on the history of local policing… perhaps not in Lincoln but across the country? https://taibbi.substack.com/p/where-did-policing-go-wrong