When Everyone Is Armed
I applaud the measured tone and keen insights of the Rev. Michael Thomas and Paul Manganiello on the matter of sensible gun legislation (“Gun Control Would Make America Safer,” July 8). Clearly, their essay was written before the heartbreaking events in Dallas on July 7, and there is one element in this discussion that they might have added in the shadow of those events.
It is clear that, for whatever reason, the National Rifle Association, the elected officials who support it and the $15 billion gun industry want every man, woman and child in this nation to be armed, and together are working toward a country in which there is no legislation of any kind restricting gun ownership and the sale of deadly weapons. The wisdom of this effort can (and is) argued at every level of our society. But one result of this increasingly successful pursuit is often overlooked in these discussions. With 310 million guns in circulation, and with the expansion of concealed-carry laws, our police officers are forced to assume that everyone they encounter is carrying a weapon, and thus presents a real threat to their safety and to the safety of bystanders. This, by itself, inevitably alters the dynamic between police officers and all those with whom they interact.
We have placed our police forces in an untenable situation. Police officers in cities such as St. Paul, Minn., and Baton Rouge, La., are called upon to be at the front lines in communities with social problems we as a society have utterly failed to address: inadequate housing, education and job opportunities, and the chronic underfunding of social support resources.
Among the results of this volatile combination of an armed populace and armed, fearful and overwhelmed police forces is an increasingly long line of young men who lose their lives for such “heinous’’ crimes as broken taillights and selling used CDs and loose cigarettes. The gun debate divides the nation’s policing community just as it does the rest of us, but the events of recent days might cause us all — police, legislators and ordinary citizens — to reconsider what happens to our relationships within our communities when we assume that everyone has in his or her possession an implement that is capable of killing us.
Susan J. White
Norwich
Equal Treatment for Elites?
The Valley News reprinted the editorial of The Washington Post (“Partisan Fantasies,” July 8), repeating the report by FBI head James Comey that the agency could find no similar case in which anyone was charged, vis-a-vis the Clinton emails. Apparently the FBI director is unaware his own agency’s website reported last year that naval reservist Bryan Nishimura was charged with unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials that he kept on his personal devices. Found guilty, Nishimura was sentenced to a $7,500 fine, two years probation, and denial of ever again holding a U.S. security clearance. This finding came even though he had no apparent intent of distributing the information to others. So Comey’s argument is bogus, that Clinton bears no legal accountability due to a lack of intent.
Comey has been praised by those on both the left and the right. Still, he is a career bureaucrat who did not achieve his position without being an adept politician. He understands the turmoil that will occur if an indictment is placed upon a presidential nominee. Thus, he ran ahead of the Justice Department, stating publicly that no reasonable prosecutor would proceed, even though his job is to investigate and present facts, not to make such a determination.
Clearly this is a case of putting the stability of the establishment ahead of equal treatment under the law, not to mention the security of the nation. Imagine a U.S. president who cannot be trusted to put national security ahead of personal agendas being explicitly denied access to confidential information. Individual readers can decide whether establishment stability or equal treatment is more important for our democratic republic. Perhaps laws are only there for the little people.
Tim Dreisbach
South Royalton
Adopt a Police Officer
There are 3.1 million public school teachers in America and 1.2 million police.
If every classroom used Facebook, Skype and Twitter to “adopt a cop,” perhaps we could heal the sense of alienation the police and public feel toward each other in our increasingly impersonal world.
You could call it “Adopt-a-Blue.”
Paul Keane
Hartford Village
Trump’s Lack of Respect
It is beyond understanding to most of us how this man, Donald Trump, can keep coming up with the sort of rude remarks we would not allow our children to say.
But the one I cannot abide is his calling Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas. My point is not whether Elizabeth Warren has native blood, it is that he is using this for derogatory name-calling. The story of Pocahontas is known by most American children. She saved the life of Capt. John Smith; she kept the 38 Jamestown colonists from starving to death the first winter; she was captured and converted to Christianity, married John Rolfe; the marriage created the “Peace of Pocahontas,” six years of peace between the Jamestown colonists and her father’s tribes. Her life ended as she visited England with her husband. She was a celebrity, feted by the king and queen.
She was quite the woman, respected and highly regarded. It doesn’t matter that she was so accomplished. She and all the other Native Americans deserve to have the same respect that we are meant to give each other. But respect for us all is something Trump does not comprehend.
Rose Law Miller
Hanover