Letters: A hard look at an LAPD shooting

Re “Beck, panel again at odds on shooting,” May 7

It has been said that if the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.

That’s what happened when police officers beat Rodney King worse than an animal and then were absolved of any wrongdoing by the same court system that gets tough on everyone else.

Now Los Angeles Police Det. Arthur Gamboa shoots a man in the back twice, and Chief Charlie Beck wants the public to believe Gamboa was in fear for his life, so it’s OK. Maybe Beck should have the motto “to protect and to serve” removed from the police cars.

Miguel Rosales

Glendale

I hope that Beck realizes one truth about what his LAPD is really dealing with: not policy, not a five-person Police Commission, but human life and the many innocent people each loss of one life affects.

Tristan Navarro

Whittier

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