Gunmen Slay Police Officers

* I found it ironic that the same day the killing of LAPD Officer Christy Hamilton was on the front page (Feb. 23), The Times carried an advertisement for an interview of Rodney King on CNN. King has become a household name, a celebrity of sorts. But who will remember Christy Hamilton’s name one month from now? She does not have the option of being on TV and telling her story because she did not survive her ordeal.

Yet where is the mayor and why isn’t he calling a press conference to denounce this terrible act? Where are the City Council members and church leaders expressing their outrage at what happened? We as a community must stand behind our police officers and let it be known that we will no longer tolerate the killing of our peace officers.

We need to protest Christy Hamilton’s murder the same way we reacted to Rodney King’s beating. If we do not take steps to stop the indiscriminate shooting of police officers, more of them are going to lose their lives while trying to protect citizens.

DIANE M. SMITH

Upland

* Regarding the shooting of two police officers, Feb. 15:

So much for the gun lobby’s theory that everyone should be armed for counterattack and defense. David Fukuto attacked a room full of police officers, and even if they were each armed it wouldn’t have helped. Gun violence is a deadly force that takes people by surprise.

The only solution at this point, with over 200 million guns in circulation (and growing by the minute), is to ban the manufacture, sale and possession of guns and ammunition. Fukuto had legally amassed an arsenal.

As our friends from Denmark ask us, “How is this possible?--Why?”

RUTH ROSEN

Santa Monica

* Two men were gunned down in cold blood on Feb. 14. Both of these men were police officers and they were killed by a deranged gunman during a seminar, which was attended by the top brass of the Palos Verdes Estates Police Department and City Hall. I did not know Sgt. Tom Vanderpool but I had the pleasure of knowing Capt. Mike Tracy for the last few years.

I did not know Mike as captain of a police department but I knew him as just another guy with similar recreational interests as mine. I knew Mike as a warm and caring family man who always had time (or made time) to help a friend or stranger. Mike’s sense of humor was second to none and he could always make us smile when we started to take ourselves too seriously. As we go through life we make many acquaintances and, unfortunately, very few true friends. I considered Mike Tracy a true friend in every sense of the word.

RUSSELL M. BOYD

Anaheim

* I read your article regarding the 17-year-old who killed a police officer, his father, and then himself (Feb. 23). While I had not seen Steve Golly for nearly 10 years, I was a close friend of his for a number of years in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His wife Pam worked for me as a secretary for about four years in the early 1980s.

Your reporter quoted a neighbor of the Gollys to the effect that Steve was “an unfriendly and humorless” person. He went on to say that he “always felt that he (Steve) would be a difficult father.” My experience is that Steve Golly was a warm, friendly and extremely generous man who, above all else, loved his son dearly. My sense in reading your article was that the reporter was trying to create a picture of a strange and dysfunctional family, which, in my experience, it was not. Rather, you have missed the real story: that drugs destroyed a warm, loving and happy family.

MICHAEL B. BAKER

Santa Monica