On Tuesday, Aug. 13, another Anchorage citizen was killed by police. This time, a 16-year-old female student in the Anchorage School District who was wielding a knife. It was the sixth officer-involved shooting in the last three months.
Now, I support our police, and feel their presence is necessary in our community. But when did we start identifying police as “law enforcement officers” versus “public safety officers”? And when did trained emergency response officers wearing bulletproof vests need to use their firearms for protection when encountering someone in obvious distress and threatening with the use of a knife?
I grieve the degradation of service and protection of our community. I grieve for the Leafa family.
— Thomas R. Schmidt
Anchorage
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