San Diegans react to Chauvin guilty verdict

Re “Jury’s swift verdict for Chauvin in Floyd death: Guilty” (April 20): Finally the “get out of jail” free card for every police officer in the country has been taken away.

Maybe politicians will take a hard look at the stats — U.S.: 34.5 police killings per 10 million; United Kingdom: 0.5 per 10 million. Surely there is a strong message in these figures.

Hopefully the results of this trial will provide a mindset for officers wanting to pull the trigger.

Tom Sowden

Escondido

The accused and convicted was a police officer with more than one accusation of bad behavior on his record.

Why did he kill the citizen? Because he could, and the record showed him that the consequences, if any, would be slight. He knew he could act badly, with relative impunity.

Now the ball’s in Mayor Todd Gloria’s court. San Diegans have a right to know precisely who on the local police force has a record of bad behavior and why they remain on the force.

And San Diegans have a right to know right now.

Leif Fearn

This has been a bad couple weeks for law enforcement. The Derek Chauvin trial, abuse of a Black military lieutenant, shooting of another Black man and a 13-year-old kid. We don’t need analysis, study groups and better training. We all know what the problem is. Law enforcement is infected with “militaristic authoritarianism.”

I saw Brooklyn Center, Minn., Police Chief Tim Gannon’s first news conference. He used the right words but he had that militaristic authoritarian demeanor about him. He is part of the problem. It was right for him to resign.

“Dominate and control” is not “protect and serve.” We all know the type. Militaristic authoritarianism is the problem.

Charlie Ballbach

Santee