Dear Editor...Well, here they go again!!!...

 Our town councilors, that is, The Silver City Town Council, proposes to impose a Police Review Board.  Haven't our town mothers and fathers done enough damage already (a) with crime and burglaries way up from previous years and (b) with every byway and highway and every major intersection polluted with Cannabis Parkours.  U know, local restaurateurs find it almost impossible to offer their sit-down customers a Margarita or two with their delicious tacos and gorditos, but a license to sell dope to our local teens on Silver Heights Boulevard...no problem.

And now, they seek to enflame relations between locals and cops.  Who's dumb; Who's dumber...Stan Snider who proposes to introduce it; or Nick Prince, the brains behind the concept?  It's not just that these police review boards around the country don't work to improve police-community relationships...they, in fact, worsen and further embitter police-community relationships.

Here's why (in my opinion and in my experience): This proposed group of 5-10-20-25 community members to sit in review of police activities will know very little (can I say nothing???) about (a) the apprehension of criminal suspects; and (b) Violence. This violence, some staged, some virtual, and some unabashedly visceral --- u know, like a WWE cage match (but horrifically, sometimes with lethal weapons like machetes, firearms, knives; and no rules!!!)  This proposed Review Board will take testimony from Mother and her neighbors...'my son Tommy is the kindest, sweetest boy on our block and he would never intentionally hurt anyone'...and all her neighbors will testify to the same.  This heartfelt testimony from a Mother and the neighbors, in my example here, will all be reported on the front pages of the press (no, not on the opinion page) and the readers of these newspapers will recoil in horror on the police actions against this poor boy...and this poor boy, again in my example, is alleged to have spit on the cops, kicked one on the calf and swung at another, while resisting arrest for beating his girlfriend and robbing/shoplifting at the local Walmart. 

U doubt what I say???  Check out relations between cops and locals in any municipality across the Country, before and after the imposition of such boards.  Relations NEVER, EVER improve...they always worsen, bitterly. Review Boards don't work, never have worked, and will fail here likewise to improve relationships...only worsen them.

Our Town Council meets Monday @ 11AM to discuss this so-called 'Citizen Advisory Board' @ The Grant County Administration Center (1400 Highway 180) --- Be there.

Pete Stubben

Silver City