How does Marsy’s Law really work?

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Phoenix: In a recent op-ed, “Police unions: part of the problem” (June 9), Jon Lonsdale claims that Marsy’s Law allows police departments to hide the names of officers. This is a gross oversimplification. Police officers who have become victims of a crime have the same constitutional rights as everyone else, but police officers who have committed crimes cannot hide behind Marsy’s Law.

Any officer who becomes the defendant in an incident because they committed a crime is, by definition, no longer the victim in the case. They lose any rights they had previously under Marsy’s Law and their name should be released.

So, is the fired Minneapolis officer, Derek Chauvin, who has been charged with the murder of George Floyd a victim? No. However, can an officer who is shot in the line of duty be a victim? Of course. Marsy’s Law provides protections to all victims, without discrimination. Period.

We tread on dangerous ground if we single out specific groups of people from constitutional protections. What really matters is that the authorities act quickly to determine who is and is not a victim. At a time when Americans are looking for greater protection in the criminal justice system, states with constitutional rights for crime victims will be better served than those without. Maria Verdin

senior policy counsel, Marsy’s Law for All

Defund the detail

Manhattan: Since New York City First Lady Chirlane McCray cam imagine a world in which police didn’t patrol city streets would be a utopia, I think her husband, the mayor, should give up his police detail. The money they will save the city can go to programs for the kids.

Dan Delia

Sympathy card

Brooklyn: Dear NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, I feel sorry for the situation you are in. Good luck.

Leonardo Timpone

Concerned citizen

Brooklyn: I’m writing on behalf of more than 13,000 people who have signed my petition for NYPD reform thus far. I’m not an aspiring politician or career activist, just a concerned citizen. We’ve requested a meeting with Chief Terence Monahan, Commissioner Shea, and Mayor de Blasio to negotiate and implement changes. We’ve reached out, and are awaiting reply. It has garnered support from a diverse group of citizens because the demands aren’t partisan or extreme. We want a better police force, and better relations with our police force. The petition can be viewed at www.change.org/nypdreform.

Naaji Adzimah

Going viral

Fishkill, N.Y.: The 200,000 people who attended the Philadelphia War Bond Drive parade on Sept. 28, 1918, did not know that they were being infected with influenza in a “superspreader” event. But that cannot be said for those Trump zealots who will attend the president’s rally tonight in Tulsa. Trump is quite willing to put their health and lives at risk, so long as they sign a waiver absolving the Trumps of liability. So Trump gets the ultimate loyalty pledge, and the Trumpsters get the satisfaction of knowing that their sicknesses or deaths won’t count against their idol’s numbers! But COVID-19 doesn’t know how to read waivers. It only knows how to efficiently kill people and a “superspreader” event is its favorite weapon.

Welcome home

Gerald Browne

Levittown, L.I.: Johnny Boy DiLorenzo came home the other day from the hospital after a 79-day battle with the coronavirus. Thoughts and prayers go out to Johnny Boy, his wife, his family and his friends. Welcome home, and here’s to a speedy recovery.

Bill McCreary

Star man

Middle Village: In support of Voicer Donna Nicolino’s letter about what person should be emblematic of Italians in this city, I suggest we swap in a statue of Galileo Galilei for the present Columbus. A man of many gifts and interests who advanced his world. He also, in the end, knocked heads with the most powerful, and yet was found to be right. I also suggest changing the name of the circle to Renaissance Circle, to memorialize the great awakening in Europe that began in Florence. We certainly could use a little renaissance in this country now.

Ray Gardner

Keep Chris

Brooklyn: To Voicer Donna Nicolini: Christopher Columbus sailed for Spain to find a new route to India and claim the land for Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. He was, in essence, a navigator, explorer and by default, a conqueror. Roman emperors, English kings, Mayan chieftains, for example, used any means to conquer their neighbors, even their own people, yet monuments remain to them. Is that problematic for you, too? Columbus discovered a passageway to the New World that allowed Western Europeans to settle the countries in our hemisphere. For that, he deserves a statue, and I, as a fifth-generation ItalianAmerican, remain proud that he is recognized and honored. One last thought: in your list of Italian-Americans who did so much to improve our culture, where was Mother Cabrini? Were you as outraged about her being omitted from the She Built NYC project as you are about a statue of Columbus? Get your priorities straight.

Vera Galasso Badamo

Keyed up

Manalapan, N.J.: To Voicer Dennis Middlebrooks, who wrote that the national anthem should no longer be performed because its author, Francis Scott Key, was a slave owner: Please stop trying to erase history. This new agenda to tear down America’s history is disgraceful. The national anthem unites Americans, no matter who wrote it. Put your money where your mouth is: If you truly believe what you say, then throw away all your money that depicts slave owners. Chris Pietromonaco

Public embarrassment

Bronx: Mayor de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza oversee a failure factory called the public school system in New York

SHUTTERSTOCK City. Why aren’t people advocating for the defunding of that bureaucracy? Yes, the NYPD needs change and reform, but decimating an entire unit of 600 cops seems like overkill to me.

Gene Roman

Open season

Somerset, N.J.: Like Voicer Donald E. Schlesinger, I was a graduate of the City College of New York before the advent of open admissions. At that time, CCNY was known as the poor man’s Ivy League and had a national reputation for excellence. That started to disappear in the 1970s when politicians opened it up to everyone just like they’re trying to do with the elite high schools today.

Arthur Bressler

Unmasked

Manhattan: It is outrageous that the richest country in the world cannot provide its citizens with the basic protection of an N95 mask. The masks we are all wearing now do not adequately prevent us from the virus. Little is said about it. Leonard Smoke

Sweet relief

Southborough, Mass.: The mask! The mask! Remember when you used to come home, and the first thing you wanted to do was to take off your bra?! Loretta Pierson