To The Eagle:

I believe in the right of freedom of speech. I also believe that, like all freedoms, it should be exercised responsibly. With that in mind, I was surprised and angered to find Amazon is hawking merchandise emblazoned with the words, “Blue Lives Murder.” How this fails to violate their seller’s policy on “Offensive and Controversial Materials” is beyond me. It displays corporate support for inciting hate and violence against the men and women of our law enforcement community. In response, my wife and I sent the following letter to Jeff Bezos:

Mr. Jeff Bezos

Amazon Headquarters

410 Terry Ave. N

Seattle, WA 98109

Mr. Bezos

As our UPS driver can attest, we are frequent shoppers of products offered through Amazon. We are also believers that as consumers our only recourse to objectionable corporate behavior is to stop being a consumer of their products.

That belief has led us to bring a halt to shopping at outlets whose corporate executives feel it is appropriate to censor free speech and curtail sales of products based on a political view of the producer different from their own.

Living in rural SW Washington, we enjoy our relationship with Amazon and Amazon Prime. That, however, will come to an end if Amazon continues to market “Blue Lives Murder” merchandise. We hope that the sale of this merchandise does not reflect your personal views of our law enforcement community.

We ask that you cease the sale of these products which only serve to incite hate and increase the danger of attacks against our men and women in blue. While it will place us in a more difficult position to obtain needed goods, we will be forced to cease being Amazon consumers in the event the sale of these inflammatory products is continued.

With hopeful expectation,

In the event Amazon continues to promote sales of this hate and violence inciting merchandise, I am asking other Amazon customers who support our law enforcement community to either cease purchases through Amazon or, at least, declare a moratorium on Amazon orders for 30 to 60 days. In the event readers would want to indicate their objection directly to Jeff Bezos, any or all of the above letter may be used if that would be helpful.

Nick Nikkila

Naselle