Police deserve our respect but use of force needs to be proportional to the threat

Let me make it clear – I support and respect our police.  I will always support reasonable first-responder levies.  I will not support calls to defund the police – that is a foolish concept.  I will comply with any reasonable police order.  However, given the numerous killings by police, I will also comply with any unreasonable police order because I am afraid of being shot, being knelt upon, or being otherwise beaten into submission.  I should not feel this way about out police; 99.9% of our police are decent human beings.  As in any profession, it is the 0.1% which is the problem.  I will support the police, but we cannot support or condone the 0.1% which abuses its power.

There are credible reports of police excesses against people with special needs or those in the grip of addictive substances.  Any use of force – especially lethal – should be proportional.  The police need training to handle people with special needs.  It is our right to display yard signs, but our failure to acknowledge real problems with policing is nothing but hypocrisy.

Farhad Sethna

Macedonia

Letter to the Editor, published in The Plain Dealer, October 1st 2020