Letters to the Editor: Worry about police spreading COVID-19, not the protesters demanding justice

To the editor: I see a double standard — in your editorial. (“Is there a double standard on coronavirus safety for protests?” editorial, June 5)

Where is your concern about members of the Los Angeles Police Department, including Chief Michel Moore, not wearing masks, in violation of the local order to do so in public? About police firing tear gas into crowds, increasing the risk of transmitting COVID-19? About the arrests of thousands of people based on inaudible unlawful assembly declarations (and therefore violating the law) and unconstitutional curfews that were not announced far enough in advance?

Further, many protesters were held for hours in close quarters, raising their risk of infection.

In 1992 (Rodney King), 2000 (the Democratic convention) and 2007 (May Day), the police unleashed violence on protesters; now they add an increased risk of the contagion already ravaging communities. When will this cycle of reckless police violence be broken?

Leone Hankey, Los Angeles

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To the editor: As the civil unrest that’s been ignited by the killing of George Floyd inevitably scales down, we must be reminded of the fact that a deadly pandemic is still ravaging this nation, with the U.S. nearing 2 million confirmed cases and 115,000 lives lost.

To refresh everyone’s memory, the coronavirus does not care about protests, personal freedom or businesses reopening. It does not consider state boundaries. It doesn’t care about ideology, the economy or the latest numbers from Wall Street. It is neither bipartisan nor political.

The coronavirus cares about one thing: finding a host. That’s you and me.

The question is, are we as hosts smarter than and able to outmaneuver a microbe? Or are we more concerned about everything I’ve listed above? If it is the latter, then God help us.

Blaine Ziolkowski, Thousand Oaks