While Mayor Ethan Berkowitz was advising citizens about tax relief, stay-home orders, and economic recovery efforts underway in Anchorage, he had a word for criminals in Anchorage: Give it a rest. This is, after all, a COVID crisis.
“I wish we could do what Bethel did and it and … Bethel sent out a text to its community and the department there suggested that the criminal element abstain from any kind of criminal activity during the duration of the COVID crisis and would encourage them to be — at least for this particular time — better citizens.
“I would encourage the criminal element in Anchorage to do their civic duty, and abstain from criminal behavior for the duration of the COVID crisis,” Berkowitz said.
He continued, telling criminals that by taking time off from criminal work, they might find out that “there’s a better way.”
The City of Bethel Police Department in Alaska had posted something online that has been going around the Facebook feeds of various police departments in the country, with a similar message: Crooks need to take some time off right now for the good of the community.
The Bethel, Alaska department referred to by Berkowitz evidently copied the advice from the Bethel, North Carolina Police Department’s Facebook page (shown below), Must Read Alaska has learned. Theirs is more colorful:
