City Apology Was Overdue

Re “Costa Mesa Chief Apologizes; Wife of Ex-Ram Drops Suit,” April 4:

I’ve followed this case of Mrs. Annie Slater’s detention while shopping at South Coast Plaza in your newspaper from the time the story first appeared. From the outset it appears that the Costa Mesa police officers involved probably were guilty of unintended racial insensitivity and ham-handedness in doing their duty. The whole incident was no doubt an embarrassing and unfortunate mistake in the eyes of the officers, while to Mrs. Slater I assume the event was a deep racial insult which cried out for redress.

What’s obvious is that, once again, the folks in positions of authority within the city government of Costa Mesa failed to defuse this situation in a simple, common-sense way. Why didn’t someone with authority in the Police Department or the mayor’s office or even the city manager himself pick up the phone and apologize to Mrs. Slater and ask what they could do to set things straight? Bet the result would have been about the same--except there would have been a $7,000 savings to the taxpayers of Costa Mesa in the plaintiff’s legal and court fees, city attorney salaries and Lord knows how many dollars spent in legal fees from outside legal counsel.

What arrogance! Is it now a requirement that we must sue our local governments simply to force them to admit they made an error and to compel them to make things right?

JERRY McCLELLAN

Costa Mesa

* Thank you for publishing the article on Mrs. Slater and her children. I was appalled to see that Annie Slater was detained for any reason. The officers who detained Mrs. Slater should stop thinking about themselves and admit they made a mistake.

I worked retail during my college years, and Mrs. Slater frequented our store. She is the kindest, most honest lady I have ever met. I admired the way she treated her children and others. Over the years, I discussed my college plans with Mrs. Slater, and though I was just a grocery checker, she seemed genuinely interested each time we met.

I don’t know if she would remember me today, but I will always remember her and her words of encouragement. Thank goodness the Costa Mesa chief of police apologized. I hope he meant it, because Mrs. Slater is one fine lady!

LORI GLASKY

Anaheim