officers - The Black Vault

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bank robber (one of the lies they ~!ways
tell).
After. being taken to the police station
and held for an hour, I was returned to my
car. Then I asked what it was all about and
the reply was, "You are a black man in a
white neighborhood!" ·
JOHN KENNEDY
. Los Angeles
• Perhaps, when all of the hysteria and
hullabaloo die dqwn, some sensible an~
s~ers wiU be .found that will ~xpose the
Circumstances that finally led to a .few
LAPD officers "blowing their tops." For
~ears, the LAPD 1:\as stood alone with very
little ~r no ~upport from the mayor, City
Counc1l, legislators, governor or citizens.
They seem to l;le damned if they do and
damned if they don't. .
There's an analogy.here with Vietnam. If
you demoralize and hamstring any unit of
people, they're either going to blow up or
they're going to become ineffective.
Permissive legislation and even more
permissive courts have ·brought us to
where we are today. Repeat offenders are
on the streets, perpetrators of heinous
crimes are paroled, resistance to arrest is
commonplace, flagrant l;iisrespect of .the
law is excused, riots (as in Westwood) are
condoned. Throughout all of this; the police
are expected to be a cross between a
benevolent Dirty Harry and Pat O'Brien.
Wake up and smell the anarchy, folks!
BARBARA MacDONALD
· Frazier Park
• In response to "Where's the Outrage·for
Dead Police?" by George Aliano, president
of the Los Angeles Police Protective
League (Commentary, March 18) :. .. ·
Aliano tragically misses the point of the
public's outrage. We are not ungrateful for
tho~e who put their lives on. the 'line .by
callmg for an investigation of criminal
actions by bad cops. We seek justice.
. It seems that Aliano has forgotten what
1t means to be a plain, average, law-abiding
citizen, because he doesn't seem to see the
difference between police who have 'been
killed in the line of duty and citizens who
have been brutalized and killed by the
police. ·
The basic difference is that when offi~
cers of the law are confronted by lawless
thugs who may try to kill them, they have
the permission of society, if necessary, to
use deadly force. But when plain, average,
The Numbers
·• Poiice beating: The Times h~;-:\·
received 1,749 letters so far on the .. ~:
videotaped police beating of Ro~-: .....
ney King; 1,359 letters were critical •·
of the Los Angeles Police Depart- -
ment; 390 letters reserved judg=.· ·! .
mex,:tt of the incident or supporteP:·. . , .
Police Chief Daryl F. Gates. , "C· • 1·.,
unarmed citizens are confronted by Iawiess
thugs who hide behind cop qadges;''ihey
have no defense. . :" · ' ·
We have seen how the hoodlums who
attacked Rodney King came close to killing :
him. What if he returned· the "deM{y ·
force" of his beating by using "deadly
force?" By law, if it were against arly(lne
· other than an officer, he would be justified ·
in defending himself in such a manner: .But ·
if had returned his deadly force attack: wiffi
deadly force against these bad cops, ·lie··
would have been shot so many times :he'd
look like a Samoan frpm Compton. •· · ' ·
The ·real tragedy is that Aliano doesn't
see c~in:inal 'act? perpetrat~~ by the J?O~ict::
as cnmmal. This moral MiSJUdgment tor-
, rupts our society and endangers our lives: · ·
' · . ., JOHN P. BRADY
·Burbank.
~ •• I'
• To stop crime, corruption and disgrace in
Los Angeles, I suggest that Police· Chief
Gates and Mayor Tom Bradley trade jobs .. :
MILDRED KAUN:AS
Yictor.:.vHle·