letter to the editor
Johns responds to second Hicks Letter about justice
To Mr. (Harold) Hicks, I read your letter defending your wife (July 2 issue). Thank you for your military service as well including your long family history in serving our Nation as you described.
I stand 100 percent by the opinion I wrote. With that being said, thank you for your contribution and I wish you, your wife and family peace on your future endeavors.
To the readership, please do not respond to Mr. Hicks’s type of (response) in my defense. Mr. Hicks missed an opportunity to provide further clarification (or a reset) to his wife’s letter (June 11 issue) by being all inclusive and condemning all violence in all of our communities.
Although I find Mr. Hicks’s suggestion that I am not emphatic towards the victims of mass shootings to be outrageous as you do, he said it best that he does not know me and that is perfectly fine, but I do have some unique perspectives. Mr. Hicks does not know that my family/friends have first-hand experiences with mass shootings/terrorism:
The 12-year anniversary is coming up for the July 27 racist/terrorist attack on the Knoxville Unitarian Universalist Church in which Greg McKendry (SME-107 member) sacrificed his life to save others; and also murdered was Linda Kraeger (whom I did not know) who was a member of the Farragut UUC.
On Feb. 16, 1988, a stalker initiated one of the first modern-era mass murder attacks at a defense contractor (ESL/TRW) in Sunnyvale, California, killing seven where fortunately a family member of mine was able, with others, to make it to safety into a “vault.”
As someone who is part of “security” communities, I have unfortunately seen the details that are not for public consumption of mass shooting/terrorist events. I have also provided “in-kind” advice/consultation on the subject to all of Farragut’s public schools (directly to teachers, officers, administrators) from one time to another from 2005 to 2018, but that is a whole other topic. Currently as I write, I am working with victim Nikki Goeser (who’s story has been covered in this very paper) in addition to our community’s Sheriff and State Senator to keep her husband’s murderer from receiving “early release” from prison, as that scumbag is still stalking her to this day.
Speaking of mass shootings, here are other examples. We unfortunately are approaching two anniversaries that happened in July 2016 specifically targeting law enforcement officers in Dallas (July 7, killing five) and Baton Rouge (July 17, killing three), which these cowards “served their country” but wanted to kill law enforcement officers for nothing more than them being “the police.” In recent weeks, we are seeing more violence towards the police and private citizens, the defunding of police and the direct correlation of innocent deaths associated within these communities “without the rule of law.”
There are definitely “bad” law enforcement officers out there, as I know this first-hand from experience, including the senseless cold-blooded murder of a friend named Jason Pabis by a rouge Dallas police officer in May 2006; however, the VAST MAJORITY of officers are brave and wonderful.
Likewise, fanatics and their movements of all types may be dangerous to law enforcement offiers as I know this personally through the murders of Special Agent Conway LeBleu (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Waco, Texas, 1993) and Sgt. Brandon Paudert (West Memphis Police Department, 2010) along with their fellow LEOs on those days.
Lastly, Mr. Hicks subliminally through his selective wording, etc. infers I am a racist due to my stated opinion. My response is: “Nuts!”
Bill Johns, MBA, MPA, Farragut
