If Police Commissioner Anthony Batts' op-ed wasn't so tragic, it would actually be funny ("Batts: More officers likely to be arrested, forced out as result of reforms," June 19)! A comedy of errors run amok! Suddenly, the police turn "coward" and run away from "thugs" who are lofting deadly weapons (bricks, rocks, and bottles are certainly deadly weapons) at them, and we are to believe that this was done on their own volition!
Those officers were equipped and ready to do their job, and I refuse to believe that any of them would have given the streets to those "thugs" had they not been ordered to do so. As a matter of fact, the mayor herself gave that order, maybe unwittingly so, because in a battle of wits this mayor is obviously unarmed; she actually gave it twice! Once when she said that she gave those thugs "room to destroy" and again when she said "it's only property."
A police officer, who has been instructed to give "thugs" room to destroy, has effectively been ordered to allow that to happen, or "stand down." Similarly, when the mayor said "It's only property," her police were then to assume that the looting by those "thugs" was obviously not a priority, again, an order to "stand down." Just who do they think they're kidding? The Sun may go for that unmitigated trash, but anyone who really knows the mindset of the police will never buy that!
And, the circus continues! State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who has instituted malicious and vindictive charges against those officers, is personally responsible for their having been at the scene of that arrest in the first place ("Mosby's memo," June 10); she didn't order the officers to "stand down" but rather to "crack down" on the "thugs" that populate that area, which they obviously did! Rather than to seek justice, which is her only function, she has publicly sided with the "thugs" and seeks "revenge," not justice! And she is so intertwined in this mess, it will be a travesty of justice for her, or her office, to prosecute the case! She should not only recuse herself from the case, she, and Mr. Batts should resign!
And this alleged police commissioner, what can I say about this man? For one thing, he is grossly overpaid! He is also contradictory, on one hand saying how completely corrupt the BCPD was before his taking over, and then saying he was surprised at the most-recent corruption! And now, even while the wounds that were inflicted upon the department by himself, the mayor, and the state's attorney are still festering and yet to be healed, he alludes to the possibility that more police officers will be arrested! The administration of the City of Baltimore is obviously bush league and out of control! The sooner that Baltimore wakes up and divests itself of these idiots, the sooner some normalcy may return to that circus that was once a city! And, keep right on pushing those police, and you will continue to reap what you have sown!
Robert DiStefano, Abingdon