People are racist, not cities

People are racist, not cities

I can agree with many statements made by Gene Kalley's March 18 opinion, "Why not go after these racist cities?"

I must correct him, for there are no racist cities, but racist people living within cities. The problem lies within the fact that many people in positions of authority tend to work their own hidden agendas. In Ferguson, a guy was walking in the street. Surely, police officers have better things to do than tell people where to walk.

True, this person was belligerent to the officer; who probably didn't feel like being challenged over something so simple. Why things escalated from there is beyond me. If I were the officer, I would have told the idiot to stay in the street and get hit by a car; then as karma would have it, the call would come in about the cigar shop robbery and I would know exactly where to find my perpetrator.

Police are often put into neighborhoods among people from different cultures and have to deal with the criminal element of that culture, which obviously will taint one's opinion of a group of people. Unfortunately, we as a people, tend to separate ourselves from those we find different. It takes us out of our comfort zone. The truth is, our Justice Department was able to pour over many cases within the department in Ferguson, and found violations within, including the running of the department.

When I go to some of the cities mentioned, I see an array of cultures represented in their police force. The problem is the number of police departments that do not have substantial representation on their force of the community and culture they protect and serve. Racism is real, but people are behind it, not cities.

Sheila Lenk

Lake in the Hills