Letters to the Editor: ‘Is this what we’ve become?’ Readers bemoan Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

To the editor: At my nearby park, there is a “hope and healing meditation path” that includes benches with encouraging messages. One has these words about compassion: “You can never really know what someone else is going through. However, we can listen with our hearts and be open to the depths of others’ pain.”

That message caught my attention during my walk because I had just seen the president of the United States joking about people trying to outrun alligators at his new detention center in Florida (“Trump tours Florida immigration lockup and jokes about escapees having to run from alligators,” July 1). I’ve seen one commentator describe “Alligator Alcatraz” as “performance cruelty.”

Clearly, the president missed a recent Los Angeles Times op-ed with the headline “In an era that celebrates cruelty, embrace subversive kindness.” Clearly, he hasn’t seen the message about compassion on our park bench in Corona. And sadly, his habit of making cruel remarks and his lack of compassion has spread to many in his administration and beyond.

John Saville, Corona

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To the editor: As the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, it is horrifying to see the concentration camps that the current administration is setting up with wild abandon and then mocking those sent there by saying they shouldn’t “run in a straight line,” in order to avoid an alligator. Truly, is this what we’ve become?

Wendy Winter, Los Angeles

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To the editor: When I saw the picture of the metal bunks in tiers, my thought was “Alligator Auschwitz,” not Alcatraz. I find this so horrific I cannot even find words for it. It is beyond disgusting.

Trump said he was going to get rid of dangerous criminals, murderers and rapists, but is instead going after people who never did anyone any harm. Their only sin was coming here illegally many years ago. Some were brought here by parents fleeing violence in their own country, wanting a better life for their children. Many have worked and paid taxes to the U.S. government. Some are married to American citizens. They are now called “detainees” and will be housed in a nightmare of a prison until they are deported. How did our country sink so low?

Lorraine Knopf, Santa Monica