During the recent days, we have all seen and heard about the horrible death of a black man at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The problem should have been appropriately handled by the city of Minneapolis and its police force. It was not.

It appeared to me that an ethnic arousal followed and protest marches started. Sympathetic people joined the protesters and a crowd formed. The crowd was infiltrated by destructive rioters and thieves who broke into businesses. Police officers were shot.

That had spread to become a national problem, occurring in many cities across the country. The media gave the events wide coverage.

The emerging themes from the events were that property destruction and looting were justified as a protest and that elected officials’ fear of offending voters led to weakness in law and order.

We don’t see a lot of this in Maine — property destruction and looting. I believe there is adequate law and order here for the safety of all of us.

All lives do matter.

Thomas Shields, Auburn