Chief Boeke Shares His Thoughts

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Any time there is a protest right now, people take notice. The majority of these protests are peaceful and look to educate and unify.

The word that there was a protest in Oskaloosa reached me in Mid-Michigan on Monday afternoon. Since we couldn’t be there in person, I reached out to Oskaloosa Police Chief Ben Boeke to understand the “protest” and to get his feelings on the George Floyd death.

He penned this letter in response to those questions. We decided to publish in its entirety.

“I am sitting in my squad across from Smokey Row, wondering how we got here. There is near universal outrage on the needless death of George Floyd. I have never before seen such agreement between law enforcement and the general public on a topic. Yet people are still being hurt. Cities are being looted. Agreement isn’t enough.

We spoke this morning at roll call about the tragedy. I posed really one main question to my team. Even without knowing all of the details of this incident, as they are largely irrelevant, could this have happened here?

Universally, the answer was a resounding NO. Even when making an arrest, we care about our community members. If there are medical needs, we treat them first. People are more important than criminal charges. People matter. No one really mentioned race. That’s pretty much what I expected. We train to win, but not at all costs. We value life, even saving people from their own illegal habits as recently as this weekend during a heroin overdose. We value life. Period.

That has been my overall experience in 2 different departments over 23 years. I don’t know a police officer who, having had to use lethal force, didn’t have overwhelming regret. Even when they knew they had had no choice. Regret. Pain.

As I was driving downtown today, I saw some people holding signs on the City Square. I hadn’t seen a sign yet, so I walked over to see what was going on. I saw Tiffany McDaniel from the Herald talking to some people. She asked my opinions and up front, I didn’t have any. We respect the basic right to protesting. Then I hear, this isn’t a protest. It is a Peace Rally. Promoting #Humanity, Will we join in on the walk?

Of course. We value life.”

Hope that helps!

Benjamin J. Boeke
Chief of Police
City of Oskaloosa

Posted by on Jun 2 2020. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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