Letter: Our sheriff’s views on race and police use of force
The June 10 article by the paper correctly started the debate our community is having on Sheriff Wiggins’ stated views on race and police use of force.
I have been truly saddened by the fact this is a heavily debated issue in our community. During this sad debate, people keep arguing the other side is not stating fact, rather opinion and political opinion at that. Sheriff Wiggins stated Federal statistics that are not complete because of voluntary reporting allowed by departments as well as the fact the stats do not include race.
I only know of one detailed study of police use of deadly force in the U.S. This is “The Counted” project, a two-year database from 2015 and 2016. This is an interactive searchable database with full reporting and citation of source data for each incident of deadly force by U.S. police during this two-year time frame. Some may want to argue the source of the database has a bias; however, when you provide full documentation of the sources of data via open citation, which this database does, you have verifiable fact.
Verified facts are not opinion, political or otherwise. Please review this database and just try to continue to argue that the U.S. police system does not have an issue with racial bias and the use of deadly force.
Jammie Sabin
Routt County
Support Local Journalism
Support Local Journalism
Readers around Steamboat and Routt County make the Steamboat Pilot & Today’s work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.
Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.
Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.