Evangelist Dr. Alveda King spoke out Sunday morning on FOX News Channel about the violence that had erupted in Milwaukee over the weekend following an officer-involved shooting.
Milwaukee police shot and killed Sylville Smith, 23, after he refused to put down a gun he was holding. Although Smith had an extensive criminal record, including at least a half-dozen felony arrests in the past five years, riots erupted in the city.
King, the daughter and niece of civil rights activists, said she was “agitated” by what was happening. She then urged the people of Milwaukee to come together to restore “sanity and reason” to the discussion of what happened.
She said the scenes from Milwaukee reminded her of the 1960s, calling it a “nightmare,” but said she still shares in her uncle Martin Luther King’s dream, and her father Rev. A.D. King’s dream. She said activists chanted “Black Power!” in the 1960s, and “tried to tear up America,” but there is a better way.
“I’m asking (people) to step back, take a deep breath and pray first, then act,” she said. “I’m calling on all the leaders to not panic. We must stop, we must have reason and sanity.”
King called on American political leaders not to respond to fear, but rather, with sanity, prayer and power, “calm the people down.” She said law enforcement is essential, but martial law would go too far.
“We don’t need the U.S. government to come in with their guns and lock everyone up in our homes,” she said. “We need to pray first, and then we need to come up with solutions. I’m praying for the families in Milwaukee, and I ask people to calm down.”
Black lives absolutely matter, she added, because John 3:16 says the world matters. God loves everyone, regardless of ethnicity, she said, and so the violence must come to an end.
“We’ve got to stop this,” she said. “If I sound like I’m a little agitated, I am. But I believe in the midst of this agitation, we can pray and we can find solutions.”
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