Readers React: Burning Baltimore isn’t the answer to police violence

To the editor: As an African American woman, I am distressed by the recent rash of deaths of black men across the nation at the hands of those operating under the color of the law. However, more distressing is the burning and looting in cities as the supposed “response” to these injustices. (“In Baltimore, riots appear where urban renewal didn’t,” April 28)

Those who take to the streets to destroy their communities are committing the ultimate act of selfishness. Destruction and mayhem honor nothing and no one. They never have and never will.

Doris K. Reed, Los Angeles

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To the editor: The governor of Maryland, the mayor of Baltimore and the city’s police chief displayed a complete lack of leadership and instead added fuel to the fire by blanketing the black community members who were arrested with the labels “criminals” and “thugs.”

Instead of using those emotional words, they could have provided positive leadership by referring to those lawbreakers as those “individuals.” Calling them “thugs” or “criminals” gives the police carte blanche to treat all blacks in Baltimore very harshly.

Richard Nieto, Alhambra

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