‘We should all support the police, stand for the flag and kneel for God’

In the recent publication of The Photo News there appeared an article showing a sign at the Warwick Fire Department:

We Support the Police

Stand For Our Flag

Kneel For God

I am an older white man and I was appalled. Not by the sign, but by the one sided anti-police, anti-American and anti-respect for God response that it generated. There was no “meaning layered between the lines,” as opined in one response.

One of those who offered their opinion stating “I certainly found the sign to be coded racist language and particularly insensitive given what we’re seeing now, where there is renewed effort to address the issue of over-policing in Black communities and the inordinate number of people who are dying at the hands of the police, the people who are supposed to be protecting us.”

The police have millions of interactions with all races of citizens each year. Very few result in the death of a citizen, any citizen. And more often than not, the decedent prompted the circumstance resulting in his or her death

Statistics show that more police are killed by Blacks than the reverse. Where is the outrage over this fact. Where is the outrage when scores of young black men are murdering each other in Chicago, Baltimore and now New York.

What efforts has “Black Livers Matter” undertaken to address this issue?

Ms. McMillan asks in her comments “should people of color be afraid that if their house is on fire, they (Warwick Fire Department) won’t show up?”

That is offensive to every firefighter who bravely responds to every call without considering the race of the person or family in need.

Commissioner George Schick, chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners, commented that the volunteer fire department is entirely white. Perhaps Ms. McMillan, or other persons of color, could volunteer for the Fire Department to address that disparity.

I did not find any racism or hatred in the sign but I can’t say the same for the comments made by Ms. McMillan and others who offered misguided commentary. I did not find any “meaning layered between the lines.”

I think we should all “support the police, stand for the flag and kneel for God.”

The police work in a thankless endeavor and they pay a high price.

Our flag is a symbol of the thousands of soldiers lives lost in defense of freedom, not to be disrespected by a narcissistic, millionaire football player and his supporters.

I find it confounding that” Black Lives Matter” demands that all Americans support them but they can’t abide a differing opinion.

I am proud to support our police. I will continue to stand for the flag and I will continue to kneel before God.

John M. Hickey

Monroe