This weekend, Okaloosa County's NAACP branch may march in Crestview to say that black lives matter.
Indeed, they do.
But while talking with Crestview resident Mae Reatha Coleman for my story about that proposed event, she told me that police should rexamine how they apprehend someone, regardless of race.
"Is there any way you can stop a kid without shooting him?" she said. "That's what I want to hear a police tell me."
I'm wondering that, too.
But I'll take it further: Can some police please prioritize crimes and their seriousness? Because recent news reports show that obviously isn't happening.
First of all, this is not an indictment of law enforcement as a whole.
Police are duty bound to protect and serve their communities, and here in Crestview, officers take their jobs seriously and they seem to execute orders fairly. (I listen to dispatch on the scanner all day — literally — and have experienced the professionalism from that end, along with from readers' testimonials; and have seen it personally in visits to the police station.)
It seems like Police Chief Tony Taylor has made significant organizational and cultural changes that will help the department overcome its corrupt past.
And Okaloosa County parents and students seem to have quite a rapport and respect for their school resource officers.
Further, from talking with residents and reading our website and social media channels' comments, people understand the challenges that law enforcement officials face every day. Keeping people safe and coming face to face each day with danger are things most of us can't even fathom.
But there's a real problem with police elsewhere not quite knowing when to retreat; when to take measures to decrease a situation's tension.
How else can you explain a Texas cop hitting a 76-year-old man with a stun gun over an expired car tag?
That happened, and Click2Houston.com has the whole thing on video.
Obviously, Officer Nathan Robinson, a 23-year-old, physically fit guy, was in no danger from unarmed Pete Vasquez, yet that didn't stop him from throwing the senior citizen onto the hood of a police car and tackling him to the ground before shooting him with the taser.
And how else can you explain New York Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo's using an apparent, deadly choke hold to restrain Eric Garner, a 350-pound 43-year-old who obviously wasn't going anywhere based on his body's limitations and having several police officers around him.
Not to mention the fact that all Garner did was sell single cigarettes — a crime, to be sure, but not one that would place anyone in immediate physical danger.
That incident was caught on video, too.
In both cases, excessive force was obviously used to restrain the individual.
It does make you afraid of the police, as Coleman said, and it is important to stand up and say, "Enough is enough."
"Let's come together," as she said, but let's be real: Some crimes are worse than others.
Shooting someone, whether with bullets or a taser, or putting someone in a choke hold are not the only options.
What's your view? Write a letter to the editor or tweet News Bulletin Editor Thomas Boni.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: EDITOR'S DESK: Shooting someone isn't the only option