Deadly force not a police officer’s goal

To the editor:

The chants of 'What do we want? Dead Cops. When do we want it? Now” from several cities upsets me. I understand that people have a right to protest against law enforcement, but this is going too far. It's time for someone to take a stand for law enforcement.

A small minority of people, celebrities and politicians are upset with what they call excessive use of force by law enforcement officers and think we go out of our way to use excessive force. After 27 years in law enforcement and retired, I've finally realized how unappreciated we are. Any time someone called for help for a domestic abuse problem, lost person, an accident, shots fired, someone needing medical assistance we would respond. We work no matter what the climate may be; we do it 24-7, 365 days a year. We have to make split-second responses in situations the public will never face. Ninety-nine percent of the time we would rather handle the situation without force, but when that 1 percent occurs we have to live with our decision to use deadly force. I can say that no officer comes to work thinking, 'Today I'm going to use deadly force.” Our goal is to go home at the end of our shift, and that people we come into contact also go home. Just remember when you have a problem, who do you call?

Jim Sorensen

Marion