Editor, The Smithfield Times:

Our law enforcement officers are under attack all across the country. They are unable to defend

themselves without jeopardizing their jobs, and their leaders are beholden to the politicians who hire them.

I am a 44-year member of the Fraternal Order of Police and know many officers and would like to say what many of them would like to, but cannot.

It is a tragedy that some persons of color have unjustly died at the hands of a few bad police

officers. I see the names of about 10 persons unjustly killed in the past several years repeated as the

victims, and they were. These 10 or so tragedies occurred out of millions of contacts with police.

However, I ask where are the protests and the signs with the names of the 200 law enforcement officers

feloniously murdered in the same period or the other 261 who died in the line of duty of other causes.

Are they not worthy of protest and remembering?

The Fallen Officer monuments in Richmond and Virginia Beach and other localities vandalized, calls to defund the police and proposals by Virginia legislators and politically appointed police chiefs to hamstring officers from even defending themselves, much less citizens, is that how we remember them?

The time is coming soon when no one will want that job. As one veteran police officer stated to me: “In these times when someone just starting out in a working career applies to be an officer, I already

know they are not smart enough to do it, because anyone smart enough to do it would not want to.”

Think about that.

The wolves are somehow convincing the sheep that the sheepdog is the dangerous one and should be removed. God help the sheep when the wolves have them all to themselves.

Volpe Boykin

Carrsville