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Letters to the Editor — Feb. 2, 2023

The Issue: Calls for changes to policing practices after the killing of Tyre Nichols by Memphis officers.

These five thugs who were hired in Memphis as police officers are just that — thugs (“Recruit and train better,” Piers Morgan, Jan. 31).

I am a retired NYPD detective, so let me be clear: This is what happens when you lower the standards in hiring for law-enforcement officers.

When I applied to the NYPD 40 years ago, I, along with my fellow police officers, went through an extensive background, psychological and physical examination in order to get hired.

The NYPD was a paramilitary organization. We were taught discipline, respect and determination to enforce the law.

Defunding police departments is not the answer. They have got to go back to stringent background checks and hiring practices.

Gene O’Brien

Whitestone

These police officers have disgraced an honorable profession with a barbaric display of brutality, but this might be the future for law enforcement.

Why would anyone want to pursue a career as a police officer? The cities and towns looking for qualified candidates won’t be able to fill the ranks, and they will lower standards to fill them and hope for the best.

Dan Gardner

Staten Island

What those police officers did to Tyre Nichols was shameful and disgusting. No human being should treat another human that way. Law-enforcement officials have the power to take away your life, liberty and property and end your pursuit of happiness. There must be limits on police power.

One step in the right direction would be to have a national law or rule that states that any law-enforcement official who takes a life can no longer work in law enforcement.

There are other reforms that can be enacted. Police officers should be limited to 10 years on the job. Instead of defunding the police, how about de-unionizing the police?

Police officers should be public servants, but instead they consider us all to be perpetrators and persons of interest.

Chuck Mann

Greensboro, NC

It is a tragedy that Tyre Nichols has died. It is a further tragedy that he died at the hands of individuals who took an oath to preserve and protect life. There will be protests and, in a sense, rightly so. There will be further cries to defund the police.

However, looking back, it is that very demand that may have contributed to Nichols’ demise. Every day, there are confrontations between police and individuals who are pursued by the police. In many of those incidents, force must be used. During those encounters, emotions run high and unwarranted force comes into play.

It is then that seasoned, well-trained, veteran officers often intercede and stop any unnecessary force.

Now we know that those seasoned officers are retiring in droves because of “ defund the police” demands, unfair and ludicrous bail laws and leftist cries from politicians. What we have left are young officers who are inexperienced.

Bodycam video showed the beating of Tyre Nichols.
City of Memphis

Change is needed, and those units must be staffed with veteran officers who have the backing of the community.

Patrick Abbruzzi

Staten Island

Horrific, terrible, unconscionable, brutal, anguishing, inhumane — the list can go on and on. The video of the Memphis massacre of Tyre Nichols is beyond disturbing.

What does it take for someone to realize he is beating another human being to death? What point in the assault makes the perpetrator stop? And at what point do those who take an oath to protect and serve turn into beasts with no moral compass?

J. Impreveduto

Naples, Fla.

Want to weigh in on today’s stories? Send your thoughts (along with your full name and city of residence) to [email protected]. Letters are subject to editing for clarity, length, accuracy and style.