Lonzie Cox, Jr. – 12/12/14

This page was last updated on December 16, 2014.

Police should be our fellow citizens; Lonzie Cox, Jr.; Beaver County Times; December 12, 2014. Dated 12/12/14 on the BCT website, this letter didn’t appear in the print edition until 12/14/14. Though my friends have fun at my expense by referring to him as my “Cousin Lonzie,” I am not related to Mr. Cox.

Most of Mr. Cox’s at least 92 letters since 2004 are tinged with race, and all take leftist positions. The most recent previous Cox letter I critiqued was “Taliban less dangerous than Supreme Court.” You can find more Cox letters in the archives (2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004).

When it comes to race issues, Mr. Cox is pretty tolerant if you share his leftist ideology. For example, Mr. Cox had no problem with the late-Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), a former KKK officer, but referred to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as an “Uncle Tom.”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“No city in Beaver County approaches the 22,000 population of Ferguson, Mo., so we have much smaller police departments. Ferguson, with three or four black cops, is a lot like the percentages found in Beaver County. Beaver Falls has an even number of zero black patrol officers.”

[RWC] I wondered how long it would take Mr. Cox to comment on this incident. You can find my comments on Ferguson here.

“Mike Brown’s brutal murder has sparked much unrest nationwide, but the shooting of unarmed blacks continues even as the people protest. Brown, Johnny Gammage, Eric Garner and little Tamir Rice are just recent examples. The failure to prosecute trigger-happy police no doubt enhances the tendency to shoot a person who is unarmed.”

[RWC] Mr. Brown was not murdered. Neither Johnny Gammage nor Eric Garner was shot. In the case of “little” Tamir Rice (12 years old, 5’7”, 195 lbs), The Washington Post reported, “Officers had responded to a 911 call reporting a person pointing a gun — which turned out to be a toy pistol missing its orange safety cap.” In a linked video, it appears Rice pulled the “toy pistol missing its orange safety cap” from his belt just as the officers arrived.

“Today’s youth have adopted the ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’ mantra. It’s OK. However, none of us should have to display such a sign. Police are NOT morons. They are recruited to have at least average intelligence. They should be our fellow citizens and neighbors who know better than to shoot someone who is unarmed out of hate, anger or fear because the person is a big man, even though he is not threatening anybody.”

[RWC] I would tell Mr. Cox to read the Ferguson grand jury documents, but his letter-writing body-of-work – including the previous paragraph – shows he doesn’t lets facts get in the way.

“All the retraining any policeman needs is a promise that his or her shooting of an unarmed citizen while on or off duty will result in an automatic minimum sentence of 24 months in state prison. With policemen being of average intelligence, I’d say we could save a lot of that camera money because -- I repeat -- policemen are intelligent and prison bars look the same to them as they do to the rest of us.”

[RWC] Let me get this straight. An “unarmed citizen” is about to beat the crap out of you or another person and the only means you have to defend yourself is a handgun. Your choices are to get the crap beat out of you and possibly die, or shoot the attacker and get “an automatic minimum sentence of 24 months in state prison?”