Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Some members of Summit Avenue Assembly of God Church wanted to show their appreciation for police.  They planned a celebration, lunch, photos of kids with officers, petting zoo, a fun way for members to say “Thanks for your service” on a Saturday afternoon.  Almost didn’t happen.

 

St. Paul’s Black Lives Matter objected to showing appreciation for police.  Protesters disrupted worship service in the weeks prior to the event.  The celebration had to be changed to include firefighters and other first responders to avoid further protests.  The church had to assign members to a security detail (my wife was on the foot patrol team with radios to report any sign of trouble), the television news showed up hoping for conflict, the volunteers were so alert for trigger warnings and micro-aggressions they were exhausted from stress.  That’s one “community celebration” that’ll never happen again.

 

You know, if I were a fiendish racist scheming to convince a bunch of polite, moderate Christians that Black people are selfish, hateful and bigoted, I could not possibly have conceived of a better tactic than these “activists” did all on their own.  Way to go, morons; you’ve turned back the racial relations clock a hundred years in that congregation.

 

Joe Doakes

Y’know, it’s high time someone organized a group.  Perhaps call it #BlackNeighborhoodsMatter.  Represent the majority of people in inner city neighborhoods – who don’t condone police bias, but who support a strong aggressive police presence in the neighborhood because it helps lower the crime rate that disproportionally plagues the neighborhoods.

But of course, the people who’d start such a group are too busy working and raising families, I’m going to guess, to be able to do much organizing, marching and agitation.