After a meeting with the head of the police union in Anchorage and the chief of police earlier this week, Mayor Suzanne LaFrance asked her allies on the Anchorage Assembly to hold a “special meeting” of the Assembly’s Public Health and Safety Committee. That way, she could get an apology she had promised to police on the record for her prior comments, which were made at a press conference last week and appeared to disparage uniformed officers.
LaFrance went on at length describing how devastated she was upon learning of the loss of the life of a 16-year-old earlier this month, who was shot dead by police after she came at them with a knife. Her comments last week poured all of her sympathy into the family of the victim, and made no recognition of the difficulty police have not knowing if they will see their families again after each …