KEVIN HAGEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
It is with heavy hearts that we learned today about two NYPD officers executed in cold blood in Brooklyn earlier today.
Recently I spoke of the good apples which I do feel are the majority and the bad apples. Not even the bad ones deserve this. No one deserves to be murdered cop, civilian, or otherwise.
This nation is at a crisis where police officers don’t trust the population they’re charged with protecting and citizens don’t trust our police officers.
The following quotes from Martin Luther King Jr are fitting for today’s senseless act of violence.:
Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love. (1958)
A fifth point concerning nonviolent resistance is that it avoids not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent but he also refuses to hate him. (1958)
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction … The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. (1963)
The time for unity and a solution to this crisis is now. The bloodshed must stop.
