Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
We writing this because we are greatly offended by the political cartoon in Tuesday’s Bulletin of a knelling football player, whom we presumed to be Colin Kaepernick, and opposite it a disgraceful depiction of tombstones of buried Black men with the epithet of ‘Unarmed Black man Killed By Police’. Of course we do believe Mr Kaepernick has every right to protest but his blanket statements are far removed from the truth. We have long suspected the Bulletin of a liberal bias in your political cartoons and that is certainly the prerogative of you and your publisher (although I would like to see a more balanced approach in the name of journalism).
This cartoon goes beyond that. It is slap in the face to our dedicated police everywhere, especially in our fair city of Manteca. We and many of my fellow city volunteers are all offended by this misconceived rendering implying that police are killing black men, as if by a coordinated plan. We’re sure your paper has access to the stats that disprove this FALSE narrative (which we could print here) but then why bother with the truth. It doesn’t sell newspapers.
I believe you and your publisher owe the Manteca Police an apology for this insensitive posting. After all, these are the same police who would protect you and your property, as well as police in other cities, when riotous thugs burn and loot while protesting based on ‘false narratives’.

Stephen Tompkins
Readus Black
Gary Colby