Riverside Beating Case

Whether the deputies involved in the beatings of illegal aliens are ultimately vindicated or crucified, Alicia Sotero Vasquez’s repeated statements that she “did nothing wrong” (April 4) point out the basic problem we are facing; our neighbors to the south think that our immigration laws don’t mean anything. The fact is that she did do something wrong; she crashed our border illegally. Looking for work is not an excuse.

It is unfortunate that this incident will further the myth in the minds of other potential border crossers; you can break U.S. law, and their police can’t do anything about it.

Until we can find a way to get the citizens of other countries to take our laws seriously, we are fighting a losing battle.

GREGORY POIRIER

Los Angeles

Re “An Outbreak of Mad Cop Disease,” Commentary, April 4: Since madness is basically irresponsibility, the solution to mad cop disease, as Stephen Yagman puts it, is to make the abusive police pay personally for any suits and financial judgments against them. That makes them responsible for their actions and will curtail the “madness.” Why should the people pay for cops to beat up the people? No thank you--I for one do not desire that particular service.

RICK KELLIS

Woodland Hills

Newspapers, television and radio have been saturated with questions, allegations and instant analysis concerning the beatings delivered by the deputies. While many reasons are given for this outrageous behavior, including racism and post-pursuit stress (hah!), I’m sure the answer is much simpler.

Police work seems to draw more than its fair share of personalities for whom the guns, batons and dark glasses are prized symbols of power. One can just imagine the frame of mind of these officers, in hot pursuit, as they move from being incredulous that their authority is being challenged to total outrage as they realize their authority is being completely ignored.

And so, the ensuing lesson was administered. The people in that truck could have been anyone. Their crime was that they did not show the proper respect. Careful ongoing psychological screening would go a long way toward separating these personalities from the good cops doing their jobs in a responsible manner.

JOHN MUIR

Los Angeles

Re the editorial, “One Set of Rights for All in the U.S.: Everyone is protected by the Constitution” (April 4), the answer is “yes” and “no.”

Assuming for argument’s sake that it is unquestionable that “civil rights apply to every single person who sets foot in the United States,” does it not strike The Times as just a little strange that “equal protection of the laws” should be extended to persons who seek to deny submission to those very laws and actually flee from that state’s jurisdiction?

As for the 1982 case in which “equal protection of the laws” was extended, as The Times states, to persons “even without proof of citizenship,” it would seem on its face to apply to naturalized citizens who lack proof of citizenship, not illegal aliens. Consequently, the case is not applicable as legal precedent.

WILLIAM J. McCAULEY

Santa Ana

Danziger’s April 3 cartoon of a police officer with a raised baton and the inscription, “I lift my club beside the golden door,” evades an important point about the people beaten--they had not entered by the door.

MICHAEL A. WILSON

Camarillo

To all heads of police and sheriff’s departments: Let’s take another look at the lessons learned about car chases and the accidents and police misconduct that sometimes follow.

Does it occur to anyone in law enforcement that when a car chase begins and continues for say, two, five or 10 minutes that the driver is probably not going to yield unless he/she collides with another object or is run into by another object?

This is a situation that the policymakers of all law enforcement jurisdictions need to take a hard look at, and the reason is this: Technology is being used right now by the Border Patrol and Pasadena Police Department helicopters to track pursuits of cars and people using infrared heat signatures. This system automatically locks onto the car/person being followed and the cops get what they want with fewer chances of high-speed accidents, related deaths, police brutality, etc.

BRIAN HUNTING

Altadena

That 15-second videotape of two Riverside sheriff’s deputies beating two suspected illegal immigrants tells it all: The two deputies did not have to use force on a man and a woman who didn’t pose any threat to them.

But what is this I’m reading from a part of your April 3 news report, that a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform related some circumstances that happened before the beating, as if saying that the hapless couple had it coming to them? If he was trying to exploit this unpleasant incident or perhaps justify what the two law officers did, that’s even more condemnable.

GIL TALAVERA