He needed help. He was killed

Re “Tasing of man by LAPD seems excessive, some say,” Jan. 14

One of your articles on the death of Keenan Anderson focused on his tasing by Los Angeles Police Department officers. But the most relevant part of his interaction with police happened earlier.

The officers arrived to find a disoriented man who said, “Please help me.” The police responded by yelling at him, “Get up against the wall.”

I cannot think of a worse thing to say to a person in this state. How about, “How can we help you?”

I don’t think the word “de-escalation” was mentioned once in the article. Sad.

Lore Spangler Los Angeles

Many years ago, my late father was a patrol officer with the San Diego Police Department.

One night, he and his partner were called to a disturbance involving a man with a knife. Upon arrival, they observed a man wielding a large knife and shouting incoherently while he walked back and forth on the porch of a house. The officers believed he was showing signs of mental illness.

They did not want to shoot the man but were at a loss about what to do, so they called for a sergeant, who asked for a broom when he arrived and was given one. He then began whacking the man with the broom until he dropped the knife. The man was handcuffed and taken in for evaluation.

The sergeant’s final words on the scene before he left were instructive then and should be now: “Don’t they teach you rookies anything at the academy?”

Steve Thorne Escondido