Publication Date: Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Letters
Letters
(July 28, 2004)
Taser over-use?
Editor,
I read in the July 19 Palo Alto Daily News that Police Chief Lynne Johnson said that, nationwide, there have been no deaths attributed directly to Tasers.
The network news reported five deaths in Florida attributed to Taser use.
The key word is "directly." Police have no way of knowing a person's medical condition. If a person dies of a heart attack after being hit by a Taser, or from hitting his/her head on the pavement after falling down, is this indirectly due to the use of the Taser?
Police officers are assumed to be physically fit. Therefore, testing on them is not proof of the safe use on citizens. More research needs to be done before we accept Taser use in Palo Alto. And the City Council should weigh in on this policy issue.
If Tasers were used only in situations where a person would otherwise be shot, that's fine. But that isn't the case. These tools are used to subdue people who are not attacking police. Officers Lee and Kahn would have likely used a Taser on the elderly Mr. Hopkins as he sat in his car or stood before them. Even the use of mace and batons were inappropriately used in this instance.
I wonder how often these tools are used in this city to subdue suspects. I don't trust that Tasers would only be used in lieu of shooting someone.
Natalie Fisher
Ellsworth Place
Palo Alto
Thanks for photos
Editor,
I have often wanted to praise some of the pictures appearing in the Palo Alto Weekly. Many of them really tell their stories.
The most recent remarkable one that I can recall was the lemonade stand showing three children from a family operating their home-side lemonade stand (Weekly, June 18). They were raising money for an operation for their pet dog.
It was a very happy and positive picture of family life and unity (little brother was helping his two sisters and they were having fun). The picture had personality.
There are many more outstanding pictures I've been attracted to, which I can't pinpoint right now. I wanted to thank the Weekly while I was thinking of it.
Also, to some writers and interns -- some of who are only passing through Stanford terrain on their way somewhere else -- keep up the good work. Thanks for keeping us informed on both business and personal levels. You do an excellent job.
Joann George
Cowper Court
Palo Alto
Digging Palo Alto
Editor,
Sometimes it seems that every street in Palo Alto has been dug up or is still being dug up. Nonetheless, the flagmen have done a pretty good job of directing traffic and at least many of the patches have been done very well, especially on Cowper and Webster streets north and south of Embarcadero Road.
I hope the patches on Cowper, south of Oregon Expressway, are not the final patches. I also hope we will soon be able to drive on streets without worrying which streets will be blocked off and whether we can navigate past the steel plates and patches.
It all makes me realize what a nightmare it will be if all neighborhoods try to do what some of the north-of-Lytton folks tried to do and what was done many years ago in College Terrace and the area south of Churchill.
I don't mind lighted speed signs, speed tables and greater enforcement of speed limits, but it is extremely depressing to think of a bunch more blocked-off neighborhoods. Thank you, LaDoris Cordell. Or has it become politically incorrect to say that?
Bruce N. Baker
Kipling Street
Palo Alto
Abandoned babies
Editor,
Every time we learn of a baby tragically being abandoned to eventual unwanted death by a frightened, desperate young mother, we get the handwringing about the "limited success" of the law passed to prevent such tragedies.
The obvious reason for these tragedies is the mother's ignorance of the existence of the law, the fear of what the law really is and the fear of the unknown terrible consequence for the rest of her life.
I am a very well read and educated 68-year-old man and I know of the existence of the law, but nothing really of the find print. I have never seen a published copy of the law.
I have heard and read that I can surrender my newborn at emergency rooms, health centers or clinics "without fear of penalties" within 72 hours of the birth (who is counting hours?). However, these general, non-specific words leave plenty of personal fear of the consequences.
Will I be questioned, photographed (with or without my knowledge), or followed to my home? Will anything unknown or unsuspected be done to me? Will my DNA be left on the baby? Does the white man speak with forked tongue? What happens at the 73rd hour? Is it a happy life or life in prison?
Why not print and publish the entire law, word by word, in English, Spanish and the next two most popular languages? I have never seen this done.
Why not list in great detail the protections from all possible penalties or embarrassments that would be rationally feared?
Why not publish a place where a printed copy (and detailed explanation) of the law can be picked up? How about a treatment of the law in early or late high school (or both) in print or play a simple movie?
All you late handwringers -- get serious about dead babies before it's too late. It could have been you.
Ken Hahn
Weeks Street
East Palo Alto
Honoring veterans
Editor,
On Memorial Day weekend our nation honored its World War II veterans. Sadly, the Palo Alto Weekly did not.
Some members of the "greatest generation" live amongst us still, with a quiet dignity that requires, at the very least, our respect and gratitude. My uncle Joe is one of those heroes. Sixty years ago he fought his way on to Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy.
To this day he mourns the loss of six young friends, local boys, who did not survive. I had hoped the Weekly would help preserve the memory of those who served. My uncle and I are very disappointed that no story was done; our messages were not returned.
Now that July 4th has passed, I feel it is my patriotic duty to remind the Weekly of its gross oversight. It's sometimes said that Americans might be speaking German were in not for the painful sacrifices of our World War II vets.
For many of us, "it goes without saying." But apparently for the Palo Alto Weekly it must be said again.
Charlotte Galina
Runnymede Street
East Palo Alto
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