To the editor:

I want to thank Mr. Alschuler for responding to my articles. However, it seems as if he may have misunderstood several parts of what I wrote. I am happy to have a sincere and respectful conversation with anyone about matters of importance, but it is imperative that we do so with integrity, and don’t misrepresent each other’s positions. I am willing to give Mr. Alschuler the benefit of doubt that he did so unintentionally, and perhaps I wasn’t as clear as I could have been.

The main point of my first article was: an empowerment attitude of personal responsibility and making good choices is paramount, but yet it seems to be overlooked in today’s environment. That was my point. On this, Mr. Alschuler actually agreed with me by saying “Of course personal choices are important.”, and then he went on about how I suggested it was “easy” to make such choices. This is not true, I actually acknowledged the fact that making good choices is often not an easy thing to do. Here is what I said in reference to choices: “Though they might not be easy, they are simple…”. Now words matter, and I try my best to choose my words carefully. Occasionally, “simple” and “easy” can be synonyms, but in the context that I used them, they are not. When I say “simple”, I mean “not complex”, it does not mean “easy”. For example, bench pressing 500 lbs is “simple”, it is not complex, but yet it isn’t “easy”. And similarly, a person living in poverty, in a high crime area of Chicago, is without question, likely to have a more difficult time graduating high school compared to someone who grew up in Barrington. So while one person’s path might be “easy”, and another’s might be “difficult”, both of their actual goals, for example graduating high school, can indeed be “simple”.

In my second article I argued: 1) Despite some high profile cases, the evidence does not seem to support the notion that police are roaming the lands unjustifiably killing people (unjustifiably killing: loosely defined herein as those killings that result in a conviction for murder or non-negligent manslaughter). 2) Based on the data, unjustified killings by non-law enforcement appear to be a much greater problem than unjustified killings by law enforcement. 3) If one acts in a responsible manner when encountering the police, then their chances of getting killed by the police are extraordinarily low.

Points 1 and 2: Contrary to Mr. Alschuler’s assertion, I was not claiming that “blacks” are killed by police at a higher or lower rate compared to “whites”, this was not my argument and I did not address this issue one way or the other. My point was simply that over a period of 14+ years, from 2005-2019, nationwide, only 35 police officers, while on duty, have been convicted of murder or non-negligent manslaughter, this averages to about 3 per year. Again, the key here is “convicted”, by a jury of their peers, after due process under the law. I could be wrong, but to me, this evidence strongly supports my argument that the police are not unlawfully killing people, en masse, across the country. In addition, when I compare the roughly 3 unjustified killings by law enforcement per year, and then I look at the unjustified slaughtering of 7,407 Black Americans by non-law enforcement, my heart breaks, and I can’t comprehend why all we hear about is one and not the other.

Point 3: I argued that instead of always blaming the police, perhaps a more productive strategy would be to educate people on how to interact with the police. In most, if not all, of the killings by law enforcement the person killed, did something foolish: punched the cop and tried to steal his gun, chased cop with a large knife, shot the cop, etc. In such instances, had the person made different choices, there is a very high probability that they would have survived the situation.

In conclusion, when discussing sensitive issues such as the above, we should remember the words of Abraham Lincoln and do so “With malice toward none; with charity for all.” After all, though we may disagree on how to solve a particular problem, or what problem might be of greater concern, we should never lose sight of the fact that we share a common bond, and that bond is that we all value and want to improve the lives of our fellow Americans.

Matthew Fletcher

Barrington