‘No police officer expects to get shot or to shoot somebody’
Jul 8, 2016, 3:08 PM | Updated: 3:13 pm
King County Sheriff John Urquhart says policing has a long way to go, but that cops are not all bad people intending to shoot others. (AP)
(AP)
King County Sheriff John Urquhart says conversations in the wake of this week’s shootings need to happen, but people need to approach them with balance.
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鈥淚 think it鈥檚 very important that people with a soap box, or a podium 鈥� perhaps our elected officials — need to tamp down this anti-police rhetoric,鈥� Urquhart said. 鈥淭here are almost 900,000 police officers in this country — the vast, vast majority do a fantastic job day in and day out. There are millions of contacts between citizens and police officers that happen each year, and the majority of them turn out just fine and we never hear about them.鈥�
鈥淚 want people that want to trash police, call us racist, or whatever they are going to do, to keep that in mind,鈥� he said.
Urquhart stressed that elected officials need to 鈥渟tep up to the plate鈥� and note that police officers perform good work and help people, despite bad cops getting bad press.
鈥淧olicing has a long way to go 鈥� there鈥檚 no question about that,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e need the trust of the community to do our job. Anybody who wants to divide the community or say things that are divisive, needs to step back and think about what they are doing.鈥�
鈥淣o police officer puts on that uniform and expects to either get shot or to shoot somebody 鈥� that鈥檚 not what we do when we go to work 鈥� keep that in mind,鈥� Urquhart. 鈥淟et鈥檚 have some balance to what is being said.鈥�
