Letter: Law-abiding citizens should be equally protected

Re: “Praise for the city’s police department,” Mailbag, Dec. 21. Though I have never met you, Joe Kroening, you have inadvertently made my case. My assumption: you do not “fit the description” (i.e., not African American, at least and living in La Crescenta, not too poor — though it’s hardly La Cañada Flintridge).

So through this venue we meet. The protected, he who does not receive repeated police stops for curbside interrogations but receives courteous, professional service (with a smile, no doubt); and the persecuted, on your behalf, who does “fit the description” and thus receives police-state style police harassment, which you speak highly of, to protect “our lives and property.”

Would that we lived in a city where all law-abiding citizens could be equally protected — not to mention get courteous, professional service — not a city where, based on race and class, law-abiding citizens are profiled, persecuted and harassed to protect “our lives and property.”

African American and of modest means equals crime? Are these the good reasons, for traffic stops and interrogations, you spoke of? I am sure the Glendale police who are well paid to provide this service for you appreciate the green light.

Phillip Herndon
Glendale