©Wendell Griffen, 2024 Following a recent meeting with about 40 people from a cross-section of Pulaski County residents, I formed an exploratory committee to determine whether to be a candidate for County Judge of Pulaski County in 2026. This group will help me “test the waters” so to speak about whether that effort would be feasible, and who would be likely to help me if it is feasible. Perhaps you’re wondering why I am considering leaving retirement and taking on the challenge of seeking to become chief executive of Pulaski County government. The short answer is because I want to serve the more than 400,000 people who call Pulaski County our home. Whether we were born here, moved here to study, teach, do research, obtain health care, retire, or for other reasons, Pulaski County is our Community. I want to help our Community learn, work, and grow, by celebrating and promoting the fact that Pulaski County is home to wonderful people, the seat of state govern...
How many unarmed black and brown people have been killed and abused by law enforcement officers since President Kennedy's 1962 statement?
ReplyDeleteHow many calls have been made, peacefully yet firmly, to eradicate the culture of violence within law enforcement agencies and reform and remedy those agencies?
How many times have protesters been told to remain calm, be patient, and trust the process that inevitably results in no arrests, charges, or even dismissal of officers who kill and maim unarmed people?
Now recall President Kennedy's statement. The violent and tragic responses to abusive and homicidal police actions now are the inevitable and deplorable results of institutional failures within law enforcement agencies and the local, state, and federal governments that are supposed to regulate them.
But those violent results, however deplorable, are by no means comparable to the decades of vicious and tragic abusive and homicidal police behaviors.