John Wiley Price not apologizing for fighting officer resolution
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price is not backing down on the comments he made against a resolution to honor all fallen officers during this week's court session.
The commissioner has drawn the angry attention of a host of police associations and support groups over his comments against a resolution this week supporting Fallen Law Enforcement Officer Day.
“Until we start to recognize all life, then no life is more important than any other life,” he said.
READ MORE: Heated debate erupts at commissioners court over fallen officer honors
Despite demands for an apology, Price says he is not taking back his words.
“Not in this lifetime,” he said. “The last time I checked, my God had all lives matter. That’s what I said, and that’s what I stick with.”
“It was to honor these fallen so I think he does owe the law enforcement community an apology. There's a time and a place for everything,” said Dallas Police Association President Mike Mata. “Any other day of the week, I would agree with him. But on a day where we lost five officers who were murdered on the streets in the city of Dallas from hateful rhetoric — whether it’s from the police side of the community or the community to the police — is not the day that you do it.”
While Mata wants an apology, he doesn’t expect he'll get one from Price
“But I want him to realize and to understand how he made first responders feel by getting up as an elected official and choosing,” Mata said. “He chose to make that day about him and not about the men and women who gave their lives for the citizens of Dallas.”
Price says until there is honest dialog about lives lost at the hands of law enforcement, “we'll continue to be siloed, and we'll continue to decide when black lives matter and blue lives matter and brown lives matter and what lives matter more than others based on who we're honoring.”