Was It a ‘Rush to Judgment,’ or Did TV Capture the Truth?

I’m trying to reconcile the video and newspaper accounts of the Riverside County sheriff’s deputies capturing Mexican nationals with Howard Rosenberg’s column of April 3 (“Slow Down the Rush to Judgment,” Calendar). I understand his skepticism about news-hungry TV helicopters. But I hope he is not asking us to believe reality may be something other than what we see with our own eyes, even if it was filmed from above. We know what smart people can do when they study a videotape frame by frame. Something that made us cringe in horror was explained away as the police simply using “force.”

By looking at the video of the Riverside deputies, by reading the paper and by using common sense, we understand that these officers confused “force” with “beating.” When a person such as a fairly small woman is face down on the ground and there is no evidence of a “PCP high” or a weapon, it becomes apparent that at that point, the intent is to render injury, unconsciousness or death. If a high-speed pursuit leaves police unable to control their batons because of the adrenaline/testosterone rush, they should be taken off the street and put behind a desk, at best.

These officers should have known that the persons they caught, especially the woman, were only passengers in the truck, not the driver who led the chase. They may have tried to run away, but that would not have threatened the officers’ safety. Only their egos.

Sorry, Howard, but some things are exactly what they seem. And they need to be dealt with.

TOBI DRAGERT

Tarzana

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I have just watched an hour of the local news, and the bulk of the time was used to show one outraged person after another. I am outraged too. I am very outraged that 21 criminals tried to evade authorities for 80 miles, at speeds of up to 100 mph, running cars off the road, while the 18 people in the back pelted their pursuers. I am outraged that the news media gave only curt mention of the above, while showing about 10 seconds of tape, showing over-reaction of two deputies, over and over again. I am also outraged at the quotation of one woman who said that the people in the truck “were workers, not criminals.” They committed various crimes, starting with illegal entry, and I have always understood that people who commit crimes are called criminals.

RICHARD A. PIERCE

Burbank