Black law enforcement organization leader: Country needs ‘deep conversation’ about revenge killings of police
Black law enforcement organization leader: Country needs ‘deep conversation’ about revenge killings of police
At a hastily arranged news conference Sunday, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives President Gregory Thomas called for peace between police and communities across the country. He said the country needed to have a “deep conversation” about revenge against police for killings of black Americans.
While the motive of Sunday’s shooting in Baton Rouge, La., is unclear, Micah Johnson, the shooter in Dallas, had told police that his motives included revenge for black men killed by police.
“We cannot let this be the order of the day. We don’t need to have a copycat scenario, be it in Baton Rouge or anywhere across the country,” Thomas said, speaking in Washington, D.C., where the organization was holding its annual conference.
“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth will leave the world blind and toothless,” said Thomas, paraphrasing Martin Luther King Jr.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who had joined Thomas, said: “This has no kinship to our civil rights movement. This is not about black and white; it’s about wrong and right,” he added.
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