Letters to the Editor (Jan. 3)
Change police training
While totally sympathetic to Wichita police who responded to a bogus call, when will police nationwide be trained to defend themselves by shooting apparently unarmed people below the waist rather than in the chest? Our training must change.
Bob Duguay, Simbury, Conn.
Police shootings require solutions
The recent shooting of an unarmed man by a Wichita police officer prompts me to offer a solution to this blue cancer that is slowly killing this country.
1. Any settlements arising from wrongful police actions will be paid using only police pension funds, not taxpayer dollars. Granted, the police pension is funded by taxpayer dollars, along with every single dime involved in so-called law enforcement costs.
2. Police will wear a working body camera at all times while on duty and will return to their station if the body camera is not working, or they will face disciplinary action.
3. No police officer will discharge their weapon unless, and until, they or their fellow officers are fired upon. Any officer violating this policy will be terminated and required to register as "A Menace to Society," and can never work in law enforcement or security, nor own or possess a firearm.
Think that's ludicrous? The explanation given for why Wichita police shot an unarmed man is the definition of ludicrous.
Enough was enough, a long time ago.
John Fleischman,
Saxonburg, Pa.
Can’t mask what Kobach is doing
There may be ways to be more specious in defending Kris Kobach, but letters to the editor author David Gudeman (Dec. 15 Eagle) does his best. Here are some facts.
Kobach has decided that illegal voting, especially by illegal immigrants, has run amok in this state and nation. He claims that millions of illegal votes caused Donald Trump to lose the popular vote, and is heading a commission to prove that. Kobach cannot find these millions of illegal voters, and found only nine confused citizens in Kansas who voted improperly, none of whom are illegal immigrants. The national commission will come up empty, too. This is a fact, not, as Mr. Gudeman characterizes it, a “monotonous bromide.”
The United States does not have an illegal voting problem. People who point that out are not for illegal voting, they are stating a fact. There are laws which prohibit illegal voting, and they are working. We have clean elections. Kobach is not protecting anyone from voting crimes, he is promoting himself.
Spreading doubt and fear when the facts show otherwise is a symptom of paranoia. It’s impossible to meet in the middle when one side is simply wrong.
Dave Crook, Derby
Once the wrapping paper’s gone
So it was a Merry Christmas from the GOP to the top 1 percent and people who own businesses, but for the rest of us it was a lump of coal.
Yeah, I know, we all work for a company and when it prospers it will “trickle down” to everyone. But does anyone really believe this tax cut will have companies shutting down factories overseas and bring them here to get a tax break on a rate few paid in the first place? Nope. Businessmen make long-term commitments on demand for their product, and decide to build it where there is a cheap and skilled-enough workforce to do it. Tax policy is secondary.
That aside, does it occur to the GOP that if we keep slashing our ability to pay for a danged thing, one of the danged things we won’t be paying for is the very infrastructure these companies need to move the products they sell, made here or not? Never mind the money we won’t have for the next natural disaster, the newly uninsured, or for the things all citizens rely on, even the ones who “hate” government — until they need it.
Kathleen Butler, Wichita
Do we need signs of the times?
Would The Eagle please do a study about the numerous “Time to … ” electronic signs around town? If people are too lazy to plan ahead, let them be late. Some are huge permanent signs, and many are portable units scattered around town. They have to cost thousands.
Do I really need to know it is 2 minutes to Ridge Road? I cannot see how these are cost effective for our city. Maybe they are handy for some out-of-towners on the major highways, but definitely not needed for residents going down Central. Is this how we need to spend our tax dollars?
Jim Laney, Wichita
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This story was originally published January 3, 2018 at 4:22 AM with the headline "Letters to the Editor (Jan. 3)."