How can you be mad at those who loot and riot but at the same time not be upset with the police of this country ("Baltimore descends into chaos, violence, looting," April 27)? How can we not expect this to become a widespread pandemic when the people designated to protect us are killing us? When I was 13 I was punched in the face by a police officer for nothing more than mouthing off. Granted, I should have had respect, but a cop should have more control and should be jailed for assault for that. When I was 17 I was drinking in a playground at night when cops pulled in, and we all scattered and ran. I was caught a block away in Yonkers, N.Y., and thrown on to the hood of a car and handcuffed. My girlfriend at the time saw me on the hood of a car and thought I was hit by a car so she came running and saying "Oh my God, are you OK?" The cops took her arrested her and beat her to a pulp because she was "obstructing justice."
I am a white male. I do not think that the problem is race but a power trip and a mistaken sense of what your job is as a police officer. Police are here to serve and protect. Not to harass and arrest for every little thing that they think is wrong. Police most of the time do not even know the law. Police invoke fear in average law abiding citizens when they are pulled over because of the way they talk down to people and because they get away with everything. I see cops on their cell phones driving, but we get ticketed for this. I see cops smash cameras for recording when this is not only our right but our duty to document public servants at work.
In the past year a countless number of police officers have literally have gotten away with murder. Police are made to protect people and instead they are all on a power trip and think they are above the law and better than the average Joe. This needs to stop. Police have too much power, and they abuse that power regularly. Cops should not shoot their weapons unless they are being shot at. If you are a cop and you are afraid with your hand always on your gun, then quite frankly you should not be a cop. They get mad and violent when someone challenges them or knows their rights. Then people comment that you should not talk back to police or say anything about your rights, but you should!
Police have no special privileges and are not allowed to break laws. With all these murders by police there should be an uprising from every American because this is our country, and we should want it back. I am afraid of the police; most of them do not act as they should and have serious anger issues. Why wouldn't they? It is so easy to become a police officer in most towns in America. Application, physical exam, background check, but most require a high school diploma or a G.E.D. when even some garbage men have to have higher education. Becoming a cop is a cop-out because you know it's a well paid job with retirement. In fact a lot of people I went to school with became cops because they could not find a job in a field they liked and need to make a living.
I stand by all those rioting and looting and protesting. This is America and this is my country and these police officers are taking it from us and taking our freedoms everyday because they are scared and wimps who were bullied in school and they take it out on people who cannot fight back because they are the police. Protect us, serve us. We pay your salary and we employ you for our safety. It is time for this to stop, and to stop it you must make a point in any way possible. I am not saying to go out and do these things; I am simply stating it is understandable how upset people are. The only way to fight back is to stand up because our justice system is failing us and so are our police.
Peter G. Uliano, Manchester, N.H.