Readers React: What if the police need those military weapons?

To the editor: How ironic that The Times published this story right around the time it ran this one: “White House steps up warnings about terrorism on U.S. soil.”

I fully understand and am somewhat sympathetic to the trepidation that many citizens feel with regard to the increased militarization of local police agencies, but I would caution those who advocate full “disarmament” to consider the Kenya mall takeover and the Mumbai hotel takeover, each perpetrated by heavily armed terrorist groups and each resulting in large-scale loss of innocent life.

We cannot be Pollyannaish about the current state of affairs with regard to terrorism, for it is only a matter of time before we have similar attacks on our own soil, be they from organized terrorist organizations or from lone-wolf individuals or groups of individuals.

When that day comes, we are going to want local police agencies to have every conceivable weapon at their disposal to neutralize the threat.

David M. McCarthy, Torrance

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