Will They Be Protesters or Rioters?

* Re “Halt to Alleged Surveillance of Activists Sought,” Aug. 9: The leaders and attorneys for the “protesters” continue to insist that nonviolence is their watchword. They want the L.A. public to ignore injured police officers in Philadelphia, several of whom were splashed with acid. They want us to believe that their “puppets” are mere 1st Amendment props, but the puppets in other cities have been found to hide tools of illegal activity and have been used to send signals to commence illegal activities.

Protesters who exercise their lawful 1st Amendment rights are welcome. Those who cloak vandalism and mayhem under the mantle of the 1st Amendment are misguided criminal souls who do not deserve the title “protesters.” The California Penal Code refers to them as “rioters.”

GREG MEYER

Los Angeles

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Re “Jewelry Merchants to Take Cover During Convention,” Aug. 9: How sad to have reached a point where merchants are compelled to close shop during a national political convention for fear that their stores will be vandalized and looted. Welcome to the Wild West.

GLENN OSSIANDER

Pacific Palisades

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I have great pride in Los Angeles for hosting the Democratic National Convention. I mourn, however, that downtown L.A. resembles not a city in America, but rather a city under siege. Businesses will be closed, storefronts are boarded up and freeway exits closed. How ironic that during a time that celebrates the essence of American democracy (open elections and freedom of speech), those who live and work in this area will be held hostage.

SYLVANA L. GUIDOTTI

Ventura

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Re “Protesters Are Enemies of Freedom,” Commentary, Aug. 10: Until Edwin Locke can prove to me that the CEOs of GM, GE, Disney, etc. deserve their exorbitant salaries because they work thousands of times harder than a cleaning woman who labors 50 hours a week and takes in sewing on the side to support her family, I’ll be out in the streets “championing the little guy.” There are “little guys” in America. We’re the ones who play ball with sticks on dirt lots, who’ll never get a chance to hit a home run in the big leagues because the field has been taken over by those lucky few born on third base who try to convince the rest of us they got there on their own.

DAVE PLESH

Woodland Hills

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So Edwin thinks he has a lock on the answer. He should know that it’s only when you do away with protesters that democracy is truly threatened.

B.P. McINERNY

Sherman Oaks

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Many of us hope during the Democratic convention for a peaceful atmosphere to prevail in which freedom of speech is encouraged for the delegates as well as for the demonstrators.

GEORGE W. WILLIAMS

Dana Point