Letters to the Editor: We need more cops like Bernard Robins. Shame on the LAPD

To the editor: When, according to your article, Bernard Robins looked into the mirror and realized that his Los Angeles Police Department uniform was no longer a good fit, he was not addressing the style, color or fabric. It was the perfect metaphor for a situation that did not have to exist.

The tragedy here is that the man who truly deserves to wear that uniform is no longer a member of the LAPD, while the ones who handcuffed him despite being told he was a cop are still in that uniform.

Even as Robins tried to get around the more aggressive tactics of some officers by involving himself with a unit that reached out to community groups, he was ridiculed by some of his fellow officers. That in itself tells another story, and not a good one.

Homer Alba, Glendale

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To the editor: The entire story of a Black officer being profiled, disbelieved and handcuffed by white officers is maddening. But there is an obscene irony at the core of the story he relates, of his car’s tinted windows being the probable cause for cuffing him and searching his car.

I follow a man on Twitter known for keeping a watchful eye on the LAPD — William Gude, known by the handle @FilmThePoliceLA. He has filmed officers rolling out of police station lots in their personal cars, many with the same darkly tinted windows that they routinely use as an excuse to stop drivers.

Mickey Fielding, Baldwin Hills