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Here we go again, as a result of the killing, yes killing, of George Floyd, we, as Browns and Blacks, will be right back to where we have always been. The turmoil in Minneapolis and throughout has a lot of attention from the politicos who have a lot of blah,blah, blah, or nothing, to say while there is much media coverage on the topic. But what happens when the cameras and the focus turns to a new topic?
Our politico types, from county commissioners to mayors, and city council members, it's the same old blah, blah stuff, just words. But in reality, they are doing little to really make us, browns and blacks, feel that we really do belong. There is a person who really cares and makes us feel that we do BELONG and that is Longmont Chief of Public Safety, Mike Butler, who up until May of last year spent every Sunday, weather permitting, for five years walking right down in our Longmont Latino neighborhoods smiling and sharing with over 2,000 of us and assuring us Latinos that we do belong! Yes, we Brown and Black peoples in Longmont, Colorado do belong!
How great it was when my Latino brothers and sisters, many Spanish only speakers, were asked by Chief Butler, “Do you feel you belong in Longmont?” All said, "Claro que si !" (clearly yes) and that they also felt okay with our police, that our police did not discriminate against them.
Absolutely no doubut in my mind that if other police cheifs in our country did what Chief Mike Butler did in walking down in the hoods every Sunday for years with the people assuring us that we do belong, that we probably would not have the recurring Minneapolis type confrontations in our beloved country.
Thank you, Chief Butler! Thank you, for really caring for us brown and black peoples and for assuring us that we do indeed belong!
