To the Editor:
Re “At New York Protests, Police Wear Protective Gear, but Many Skip Masks” (news article, June 11):
Around 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, while I was walking through Fort Greene Park, I passed a group of six or seven officers standing on the path. Seeing that only one of the officers was masked, my husband politely commented: “Come on guys, public health! You should be wearing masks.”
An officer angrily retorted, “We stopped caring after the Molotov cocktail!” I assume he was referring to the recent incident in Brooklyn in which someone threw an incendiary device into a police car. That incident was shameful — though no officers were injured or killed, which is more than you can say for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many other black people murdered by the police.
Sir, you are here to protect the public. If you have stopped caring about that, then it is time for you to get a new job.
To the Editor:
Now that we have seen what a visual impact a photo or video has on the opinions of the electorate, why not try that with gun control? We have seen so much anguish pouring out of the parents of slain schoolchildren, but the parents and the media still resist showing the harsh reality of what a crime scene looks like after a mass shooting.
Let the world see what the results are from an attack by an assault rifle. It would have an impact a million times greater than all the parents showing up for interviews on the mainstream media, which continues to sanitize these shootings by hiding the photographic evidence. The photos might even shut up Alex Jones, but that might be too much to hope for.
Elliot M.L. Bloom
Palm Beach, Fla.
Statehood for D.C.
To the Editor:
Re “Washington, D.C., Deserves to Be the 51st State” (Op-Ed, June 10):
Susan E. Rice rightly identifies the injustices that statehood for Washington would correct for the more than 700,000 of us who call the nation’s capital home. Even more, D.C. statehood would also help counterbalance a Congress (especially the Senate) that remains dominated by rural states despite the fact that more than 80 percent of Americans now live in cities.
The challenges facing D.C. — including affordable housing, education achievement gaps, and racial disparities in public safety — are well known to this urban American supermajority. But we city dwellers also know that Congress, especially the Senate, has sustained its persistent bias in favor of policies and federal funding schemes that favor states that are less populated, more rural and, yes, more white.
By adding two new senators from the 51st state, we could help focus Congress on the needs of urban Americans in the other 50 states, too.
Christopher J. Le Mon
Washington
Commuters Deserve Better
To the Editor:
Re “La Guardia Terminal Open After $4 Billion Overhaul” (news article, June 11):
For those of us who have had to pass through the Port Authority Bus Terminal and/or Penn Station, the contrast with the images of the newly renovated La Guardia Airport Terminal B borders on the obscene.
When will the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey address the needs of its commuting work force and give us something worthy of this “city of the world”?
Scott Killian
North Bergen, N.J.