Regarding police tactics
Equal protection
Regarding “Dump bad apples,” (A16, June 5): Thank you for your call to “dump bad apples” on our police forces. Not only do they violate the rights of citizens, they make the job more difficult for “good cops fulfilling a mandate to serve and protect.” One of the latter, retired police chief Forrest Rippey in Friday letters (A16, June 5), writes that he used to present all his recruits with a laminated card listing the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. I’d like to suggest a friendly addition to his policy. Add an excerpt from the 14th Amendment: “No State shall … deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Who in particular needed this equal protection is clear from the 15th Amendment, which forbade denying or restricting voting rights “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
Equal protection of the laws has been part of our Constitution since 1868. It’s time we started enforcing it. Walter D. Kamphoefner, Bryan
I applaud the protesters for standing up to injustices. There’s also been a lot of hatred lately directed toward police departments all over the country. Let’s not forget most officers are decent, brave individuals who perform dangerous work daily. They protect me, you and the building you create this paper from. Don’t like the way your police department is run? Think your community is being policed unfairly? Consider joining that force. I can’t think of a more direct way to become a part of the solution. Chet Miller, Houston
The stories being spread about the defunding of police departments are really asinine, as the communities in this country have been protected by police and sheriffs’ departments for more than 200 years and any change to those standards would be disastrous. There would then be cause for vigilantes who would mete out punishment for anyone caught doing any crime. No reflection on my “fellow man,” but if a bunch of “rednecks” with guns and ropes were in control, to call it anarchy would be an understatement. Lawrence Keen, Pearland
I don’t know the city of Buffalo. I don’t know its police force or its reputation. I do know what I saw. I was dismayed at the video of two officers knocking down an elderly protester standing alone. There was no unruly crowd. There was no apparent reason push him. The police could have easily bypassed the man.
What is more disturbing than the actual incident is the reaction of Buffalo’s Emergency Response Team’s entire force quitting in support of the two officers.
If they quit in support because they saw the action as proper policing and not excessive, they should all quit. They are not fit to be cops.
If they quit in a show of solidarity with fellow boys in blue regardless of the offense, they should quit. To support the two officers facing discipline for such behavior is to support excessive violent police tactics. P. Crane, Conroe
BIBLE VERSE
I will give them — within the walls of my house — a memorial and a name far greater than sons and daughters could give. For the name I give them is an everlasting one. It will never disappear! Isaiah 56:5