Readers React: Does Daniele Watts deserve our sympathy?

To the editor: Are you kidding me? You hand over two-thirds of a page to actress Daniele Watts? (“Daniele Watts, in her own words,” Op-Ed, Sept. 27)

Does she know that it is perfectly legal for a police officer to ask for identification without probable cause? The officer did nothing wrong and Watts was entirely in the wrong, and yet you still publish her wrongheaded diatribe?

Racial profiling by the Los Angeles Police Department exists. There are real civil rights lawsuits that could be reported in great detail. Watts’ experience is not one of these troubling events.

Gregory Bodell, Los Angeles

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To the editor: It was Easter Sunday when my uncle came over. I was in my early teens, and my grandmother asked my uncle (her son) if he would go to the market for her.

As we drove, a police officer pulled us over and asked my uncle to get out of the car. As we stood on the sidewalk, the officer told my uncle to get on the ground. My uncle was astonished; it was Easter Sunday, and he was in a white suit.

The officer ran the plates, checked my uncle’s driver’s license and then released us. The cop drove off smiling. For the next several months, my uncle was not the same.

That Watts faces accusations, insults, slurs and even threats says a lot about people.

Charles P. Martin, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Since Watts is no longer a teenager, she should know that it is everyone’s responsibility to show the police ID when it is requested. The question isn’t what you did or didn’t do but who you are.

Respect for authority means everything. No one is above the law.

Roberta M. Blank, Los Angeles

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