Chase, Beating on Videotape

I witnessed part of the high-speed chase April 1 as it came through Temecula, a truck full of illegal immigrants, and was disgusted to read in the paper April 2 that the police are being criticized for beating two of the vehicle’s occupants. Ramona Ripston, ACLU executive director, is calling for a Justice Department investigation, using--you guessed it--my tax dollars to find fault not with the lowlife driver, but with the police!

The pundits are just warming up on this incident and, like Ripston, show little concern for the safety of law-abiding citizens like myself, who were put in needless danger.

ROB CAMPBELL

Temecula

* I’m sickened by the actions of the Riverside County sheriffs. I could not believe what I was seeing on the news. I watched in horror as two people were beaten with night sticks. These two individuals did not run away, as the other did, yet they were beaten ruthlessly.

What has happened to these police officers? Have they lost their feeling for human life? These immigrants were not being chased because of rape or murder. These were people coming into our country to work the jobs no U.S. citizen wants. Yes, they should enter legally, but I do not believe in the inhumane treatment they received.

The suspension that these two officers received is not enough. They should not be paid while this case is being investigated and they should be prosecuted.

SUSAN SANZ-FRANCO

Monterey Park

* One way to look at the arrest on I-15 is that the officers used excessive force in their apprehension of the illegal aliens. Another way of looking at it is that the suspects, in their 80-mile-long, high-speed getaway, endangered the police and innocent bystanders. They could have killed themselves or other motorists. I think they got off easy, all things considered.

JOHN DWYER

Pomona

* I do not get it. It’s OK to endanger American lives by speeding down our highways to escape law officials. But, when our fed-up law officials react, they are punished. If I entered Mexico illegally and made Mexico’s law officials chase me 80 miles into their country, you can be sure I’d be in their jail cell, not walking free and able to sue their agency for treating me badly. I’m fed up.

NICOLE DRAFFEN

Laguna Niguel

* What kind of country is this that would tolerate such barbaric behavior by its law enforcement personnel?

The shameful fact that the Riverside sheriff’s deputies may be acquitted in this sordid affair does not negate the fact that they beat mercilessly two humans, with God-given unalienable rights, whose only sin was seeking to better their existence.

JOSE Y. LOPEZ

Monterey Park

* The “15-second beating touched off a sort of national soul-searching,” reads the lead story in the April 3 Times. In any given day, with drive-by shooting and murders occurring, you choose to fan the flames of rhetoric in order to press the “immigrant-bashing” hot button.

No sane person could possibly condone the brutal actions of two policemen, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that we are also dealing with coyotes, who deal in human cargo like they were cattle. When was the last time that The Times reported the bodies that float down the Tijuana River and the rapes and murders that have resulted from the brutal treatment by these heartless smugglers? How much coverage did The Times give to the senseless riot that occurred March 29, when 28 people were hospitalized by the actions of a few illegal alien criminals in the Miramar Naval Air Station jail?

The continuing problem of the massive invasion by illegal aliens is a major problem that cannot be obfuscated by a single emotionally charged incident.

BYRON SLATER

San Diego

* Is this a great country, or what? Leticia Gonzalez has good reason to wonder. She came here Monday simply seeking a better life. First she was was subjected to a harrowing 80-mile ride at high speeds crammed in a ramshackle pickup truck with 18 other seekers of the good life. Second, she was dragged from the pickup by her hair by a couple of jack-booted thugs . . . er, policemen, and beaten with batons and then jailed.

But the greatest violation of her human rights occurred Tuesday when she was released from jail. She was then put on display like a frightened animal by a voracious attorney and a publicity-hungry consul general. Thrown to the media wolves. Welcome to the good life, Leticia.

MAX E. QUIGLEY