In the editorial "Stand up to violence" (May 20), The Sun tries to connect the dots of the ills of our communities while pointing to what's wrong with those of us actually in the trenches trying to solve the issues with a more hands on-approach. Well, you failed! It's clear you either didn't read the NAACP letter to the FOP in its entirety, or you have an agenda to push (like that's something new for The Sun), much the same as Fraternal Order of Police President Gene Ryan and his group.
While we do believe that Mr. Ryan's rhetoric was seen as borderline racist and threatening, both in his reference to peaceful protesters as a "lynch mob" as well as in letters targeting State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, we never raised racism as the underlining issue. In fact, we were more concerned that Mr. Ryan's comments would further deepen the racial divide in this city, which we were attempting to avoid, and were offering an olive branch to law enforcement and the FOP to jointly help the NAACP in our efforts to heal our city.
All your Monday morning quarterbacking editorial seems to do is further alienate those actually doing the work in the urban communities like Sandtown in order to exacerbate the unrest and violence in our communities so you can report on it and sell newspapers. To act as if you are worried about "racially divisive tones" when you have historically been the most racist news publication in this town for decades is both laughable and the very sort of idiotic rhetoric we were criticizing in the first place.
Hassan Giordano, Baltimore
The writer is Chairman of the Baltimore NAACP's Criminal Justice Committee and the author of the NAACP's letter to the FOP.