Police Officers’ Routine Stops Hazardous

Re (“Shooting Probe Was a Charade,” Letters, June 16):

It’s very clear to me that the writer allowed his fingers to do the typing before engaging the brain he should have between his ears.

He talks about “just a traffic violation” and that the police murdered a man. But what he fails to realize is that more police officers are murdered or injured by people who the officer stops for that minor traffic violation.

He also states that the police were “obviously stupid” for standing in front of the vehicle. These law enforcement individuals are doing a job that no one else wanted to do and most people are not qualified to do.

Let us remember the many hundreds of law enforcement officers who are murdered or injured each year due to the minor traffic violation. If you need help remembering them, just go to the Civic Center in Santa Ana or Sacramento and look at the memorials, and you will see many names of those who gave that ultimate sacrifice for us.

If anything at all could help you remember the “minor traffic violation,” think of Officer Howard Dallies, Garden Grove Police Department, [killed in] 1993, and Officer Martin Ganz, Manhattan Beach Police Department, [killed in] 1994.

I do each May during the remembrance ceremonies and when I teach traffic safety.

C.D. VINCENT

Police Officer

Huntington Beach