Pubdate: Mon, 23 Mar 2009
Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL)
Copyright: 2009 St. Petersburg Times
Contact: http://www.sptimes.com/letters/
Website: http://www.tampabay.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419
Author: Peter Altmeyer
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n118/a07.html

POLICE ARROGANCE

Your recent coverage of "Rachel's Law" legislation raises some 
serious concerns about police conduct and the deference given to this 
group of public employees. The primary focus of most police 
departments is to "protect and serve" the public. Yet we now have 
groups of police lobbying for their wishes over the rights and 
protection of the very persons they are hired to defend.

There is something very perverse in this situation. The police in the 
Rachel Hoffman affair used the same threats and intimidation 
techniques that street thugs and drug pushers use to control their 
victims and employees. They skirted the law with a wink and nod from 
their superiors and prosecutors who are more interested in statistics 
than the responsible performance of their jobs.

No police officer has the right to assume his interests are more 
important than the life of a person who by the police's own admission 
was not even charged with a crime. This cavalier attitude that 
somehow police are above the citizens they are hired to protect has 
far-reaching and damaging consequences.

Peter Altmeyer, Palm Harbor
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom