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Todays Letters: Police officer needs to learn patience with elders
Letters to the Editor
Published January 22, 2008
Her wait for french fries ends with a taste of jail Jan. 19, story
May I and other seniors volunteer to counsel 30-year-old Clearwater police Officer Matthew Parco in respectful treatment of us, his taxpayer-employers?
Honking, demanding IDs, insulting, handcuffing and jailing a 75-year-old waiting for unsalted french fries surely is more unseemly than the widowed grandma's failure to move her Lincoln Town Car another foot out of his way.
Waiting for drive-through service at McDonald's is hardly a dangerous beat, but some grannies might bake even him cookies to prevent starvation.
Do Florida examinations test rookie lawmen for common courtesy toward citizens and especially for patience with elders?
M.L. Satterfield, Spring Hill
Speedy relief needed Jan. 19, editorial
Borrowing to pander
Your editorial notes that one of the few times the two political parties agree to borrow and spend is in efforts to stimulate the economy in ugly times. Initial reviews of various proposals from the peanut gallery are negative, most noting it's "not enough."
Okay: $150-billion of free money borrowed mostly from China is not enough. Individuals and corporations, already wallowing in their own debt, just can't face the reality that we live in a bankrupt country with a printing press.
The sickest thing is no matter how much we borrow to pander in an election year, the money will mostly pay for stuff already bought and will not stimulate anything a whit.
But in our "150 free chickens in every pot" modern political discourse, we simply cannot tell the truth that many no longer even have the pot to put chickens in. So just start rolling those free money presses, but know that this time they may be rolling right over that cliff we've been ignoring.
Dale Friedley, St. Petersburg
An extra check
Don't forget the Social Security recipient. How about a 13th check - a "baker's dozen" for the senior citizen voter?
Dilmon Steen, St. Petersburg
A good return on his investment in the sun Jan. 12, Homes story
Expensive energy savings
It's great that the Brownings want to save energy, but please tell me why the taxpayers of Florida should pay them $20,000 to do so. I do it for free every day by the way I drive, conserve water, recycle, use electricity, use reusable cloth grocery bags, a clothes line and whatever else I can do.
However, I haven't been offered any money by the state of Florida for all my effort. Not that I want any money for what I do. It just seems like giving one homeowner $20,000 of taxpayer money to save energy is just too much.
James Molloy, Pinellas Park
Faith works; that's a fact Jan. 19
Needed awakenings
Everyone connected with the prison system as well as concerned citizens should read Allison DeFoor's objective and informative article. I also recommend it to members of the media for whom the phrase "Christians" may conjure up a vision of Bible-thumping bigots intent on using tax money to create a theocracy rather than a vision of sincere persons of faith voluntarily reaching out to help others.
My perspective of prison life is based on my friendship with a nonviolent drug offender serving time in a North Florida prison. While imprisoned, he has been sodomized, beaten, robbed of meager possessions and verbally abused multiple times. Who were the perpetrators of these outrages? Testosterone-driven males lacking in moral sense and impulse control.
As statistics accumulate, I believe people will support the concept that only a spiritual awakening, however defined, will dissuade such predators from continuing their vicious attacks both within and outside of prison. Faith-based programs can open the door for such an awakening.
Your Jan. 8 editorial on this subject (Pushing religion in prisons) closed with an implied commitment by the Times staff to continue its zealous monitoring of religious encroachment in public life. I hope DeFoor's article will reduce your anxiety enough so you can focus your journalistic energy toward more critical issues. Governmental waste and corruption come to mind.
Introducing prisoners to "religious" values such as care and concern for others, compassion and the concept of a higher power hardly threatens "separation of church and state."
Charles Dunlop, Largo
Compassion was lacking
Where is the compassion or even patience in this officer to just ask this women to move up or even assist her to adjust her parking? This happens to normal citizens frequently in drive-throughs or any parking lot every day, but the rest of us do not have the authority to arrest someone we get impatient with or who ticks us off.
It sounds like Officer Matthew Parco has no patience or compassion for our elderly citizens. Maybe this officer and the Clearwater Police Department need to review some service procedures, and the officer might need an anger management program. What horrible PR for the city of Clearwater and its Police Department. How many retirees do we have in Pinellas County and/or winter residents, that we depend on for our area's economy?
I sure hope there is a prompt and total investigation by Chief Dewey Williams, with the appropriate compensation given to Jean Merola along with the appropriate and swift discipline taken against this officer.
It angers law-abiding citizens to see this happen when crime is rampant and the thugs of our county and city continue to thrive on us. What a waste of taxpayer money, with the arrest, the time it took two officers away from the real crime on the streets and possibly future litigation.
Adrienne Nichols, Madeira Beach
Traumatic experience
I just read the sad story about the officer who arrested the 75-year-old grandmother. What happened to "To Protect and Serve"? Officer Matthew Parco should not be allowed to patrol the streets with the amount of compassion he shows. And handcuffing her? Come on. Was he worried she might make a run for it?
Thank God the people at the jail recognized that she should receive some dignity.
The police do not realize the amount of trauma and stress that they put people through when they arrest and book them. It may be routine and no big deal to a police officer, but to someone who for years respected the law and never broke it to be treated this way is unacceptable. How are we to respect the law when they don't respect us?
Paul Swikey, New Port Richey
[Last modified January 21, 2008, 22:00:42]
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