Letters: KC readers discuss police killings and Sam Mellinger’s sports figures picks

Missed the cut

My son and I found Sam Mellinger’s rating of local sports figures great fun, both of us developing our own lists before we looked at Mellinger’s selections. (May 24, 1B, “Ranking the most influential people in KC sports history”)

Denny Matthews was mentioned by a letter writer Wednesday as an obvious slight. (10A) We thought Roy Williams was an even greater omission.

- Larry Heffel, Lenexa

This isn’t balance

The Star has published two letters to the editor in the past week that imply victims of police killings are to blame. A letter in Friday’s edition suggested that black people can avoid being killed by police if they behave properly. George Floyd did everything asked of him and was killed anyway. The same is true of many black victims of police brutality.

But even if people disobey the police, the police aren’t supposed to lynch them. America is a nation of laws, and, as such, criminal sentences are determined by judges and juries.

Please stop publishing letters that perpetrate the lie that black victims are responsible for their own killings. It’s irresponsible and inaccurate.

And if you’re seeking to show “balance” on the topic, consider this: You would never publish a letter arguing that the victims of a mass shooting perpetrated by a white terrorist had it coming because they behaved incorrectly.

This story has only one side, and we know that because, fortunately, it’s all on tape.

- Dave Miranda, Lenexa