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Citizens were welcomed in effort to protect community

| August 4, 2020 1:00 AM

Sandpoint’s mayor received a letter of demands from Black Lives Matter. Turns out, he is in line with them.

Having been fine with our police department until then, he is now on board with BLM demands for expressed support of their group and its goals, anti-racism training for police and city employees, regular de-escalation training, and a community oversight board for the police department. Check out his lengthy editorial in the Daily Bee on June 18.

Apparently, he has not followed what happens in small towns across the nation these days when elected officials give in to BLM’s demands. Those demands are then ratcheted up to crazier levels. Not acquiescing means threats of recall, resignations, firings, or worse. “Worse” has come to mean riots and businesses going up in flames. BLM leaders openly brag on national TV about “burning the system down” if their demands are not met.

These BLM leaders are, by their own admission, “trained Marxists.” They supported Bernie Sanders’ campaign, right in line with Sandpoint’s mayor, also a Bernie admirer. The fly in the ointment are those pesky citizens who actually understand the Constitution and don’t mind being around to watch what goes on when a BLM protest comes to town. To the mayor, they are “vigilantes.” And he devotes nearly half of his above-mentioned editorial to smearing them just for exercising their constitutional right.

Fortunately, our police and sheriff’s department understand the Constitution, too. None of them objected to non-BLM citizens populating Sandpoint city streets.

KATHY BEARD

Sandpoint