FORT SMITH, Ark. — Fort Smith Police Chief Danny Baker took to Facebook Wednesday (May 27) in response to the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
Baker denounced recent acts of racial violence and reassured Fort Smith residents those types of events would not occur in this city.
Baker acknowledged that many are angry about the events, the killing of Floyd and the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbrey, a black man out for a run in his Georgia neighborhood, by two white men.
“I’m angry too,” Baker said in his video post. “I wish I knew why these things happen.”
He said he felt compelled to stand up and say something about the events because “silence is not working.”
Baker said police officers are supposed to be the peacemakers, but what is going on today in this country is “anything but peacemaking. If anything, it’s creating a bigger divide in people.”
He said he wants black neighbors and friends in Fort Smith to know the Fort Smith Police Department sees what is happening and is committed to making sure it does not happen in Fort Smith.
“I have long been a believer in community policing as a mindset, not a policy or a program, and our department has embraced this philosophy over the last few years, both on the streets and on social media,” Baker said.
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