ST. MARTINVILLE, La. — St. Martinville Police Chief Ricky Martin has made a statement on the demonstrations in Minneapolis that are ongoing in dozens of major cities throughout the nation in response to the death of George Floyd.
In a post on the St. Martinville Police Facebook page, Martin states that he felt the urge to address the batter after citizens of St Martinville reached out to him regarding his opinion. Martin writes that he is a true believer in transparency within law enforcement and community-police relations.
"As the Chief of Police of St. Martinville, I share in America’s outrage over the death of George Floyd," writes Martin. "The video of Mr. Floyd’s death is tragic and the actions of the officers are unacceptable. One of our responsibilities as law enforcement officers is the protection of life. Life is so precious and short! Our training and departmental policies must emphasize de-escalation and the “sanctity of human life.” I condemn the actions of the Minneapolis police officers involved in this incident. NO ONE deserves to be treated in such an inhumane way."
Martin states that leaders in law enforcement and the community must learn from this very tragic incident.
He also pledges to both citizens and officers that more training will be done regarding proper arrest techniques, dealing with a claustrophobic person and many other topics that this incident has brought to light.
"Please do not condemn the 99 percent of law enforcement officers that live their lives to help others and go to work everyday in an effort to help someone they have never met, sometimes putting themselves in harms way to help someone else," writes Martin. "Every occupation has that one percent of bad grass. In my opinion, law enforcement must be held to a higher standard than any other occupation. We don’t always make people happy and some may hate us for the uniform we wear or what we represent as people who enforce the laws of our city, state and country, but we are still there when called and always will be!"
Speaking with KATC Friday night, Chief Martin said, "It's up to us as chiefs, as sheriffs, as administrators in our own departments. We know our communities, so we have to step up in the community as community leaders in our city or parish or wherever you work. It's up to us to earn the trust of the people, which we should be doing every day to begin with without this happening."
You can read the full post from Martin below.
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