Once more a senseless and needless shooting of a victim by a police officer has occurred ("Black motorist's fatal shooting: Outcry over police tactics," April 10).
Once more we see a local police chief and mayor standing shocked and bewildered behind a battery of microphones while trying to offer apologies, explanations, contrition and solutions to an officer-involved crime while the afflicted community, which embraced the victim, stands waiting for an explanation of yet another in a long series of similar crimes.
The specter of racism haunts our land, together with the ghosts of racism centuries past, and we feel it will be at least another century before we can shake off this infernal oppression.
Racism is often offered as a basis for needless repression by police forces. This may be true, and police chiefs struggle with community and government pressures to develop a police force that echoes the demographics of the community it serves.
Yet a well trained police officer who is secure in his role and enjoys a good relationship with local residents doesn't necessarily need to be of the same ethnic, racial or religious group.
I assume that police recruits undergo some form of psychological evaluation, but perhaps we need to be more discerning in evaluating their self esteem and worth. A recruit may have good intentions in joining the police force, but low self esteem may be cloaked in the desire to wear a uniform to bolster his or her standing.
Such a future police officer may well function in everyday teamwork and duties but fall apart when faced with a solo situation and a rapid change of events. A perceived lack of deference to the uniform becomes a lack of deference to the officer, who resorts to using his firearm as a final act of desperation.
Donald T. Hart, Idlewylde