[POLICE SHOOTING]

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Age doesn't matter in shooting

Does society not realize that a 20-year-old with a rifle has just as much ability to kill as a 30-year-old or a 40-year-old or even an 80-year-old, not to mention a 13-year-old?

Honolulu police did not overreact; they did what we as society ask them to do: Protect us.

Thank god we have HPD. Hawaii and our streets and neighborhoods have one less reason to fear.

Gene T. Stocks

When police say 'drop it,' then drop it

The tragedy in young Dustan Long's death in Wahiawa happens so often in so many circumstances that my head spins.

People get shot when they lunge with knives at policemen and they get shot when they run from police into dark alleys.

The best way to avoid getting shot by the police is very simple. When the police tell you to stop and drop your weapon, do it.

Gil Riviere

Cease fire if you don't want to be shot

The police shooting of Dustan Long has provoked a pair of bewildering letters in the Star Bulletin (June 7).

In the first letter, Stella Calio, who begins her letter by admitting that she didn't know Long, opines that the police should have allowed a civilian to approach an armed suspect who had already shot two people and who had repeatedly threatened to shoot again. She then concludes that Long wanted to come out peacefully, a claim obviously contradicted by the fact that he shot at police officers.

In the second letter, Steve Raynor states that the Star-Bulletin's headline, "Police kill gunman at party," was misleading. He doesn't state which part of the headline he takes issue with; presumably not that police did the killing or that Long was a gunman.

I suppose at that point the party was over, but that hardly seems relevant. Raynor then suggests a number of alternative headlines, all of them far more prejudicial and misleading than the real one, before alleging that police determined Long to have waived his right to due process. What Long waived was his right not to be shot -- when he fired upon police officers who properly returned fire.

A variation of the golden rule would have served Long well in this situation: If you don't wish to be shot, don't shoot people.

Ben M. Schorr

They should have let mother talk with son

What a stupid policy it is for the police department to not allow loved ones or close friends to try to end potentially fatal situations such as the recent incident involving Dustan Long in Wahiawa.

The many fatal endings to these situations have gotten way out of hand. And it's always the Honolulu Police Department's policy to not allow family or friends to try and resolve these situations peacefully.

I recall a recent incident in which police did allow a family member to talk a barricaded individual into surrendering peacefully.

In Dustan Long's case, the fact that his mother was a nurse makes it even worse. With her education and training, she is way more qualified and her chances many times better than a "trained" police negotiator to handle a situation like this, especially because it was her son.

Don't Chief Lee Donohue or any police officer believe that their wives would have the best chance of calming their sons in a situation like this? Are we to believe they would rather have their sons' lives in the hands of a negotiator instead of the boys' mothers?

Also, it is the perception of the public that the police officers trained to handle these situations are really itching to blow away the perpetrator. After all, they've been training over and over to do this.

Our state lawmakers need to look into this policy of HPD's of not allowing family and friends to be completely involved in the negotiating process.

Mel McKeague

Stop second-guessing police officers

I am sick and tired of hearing that the police did not have to use deadly force in handling the Dustan Long situation.

The police are bad-mouthed every time something unfortunate like this happens and it's about time someone stood up for them. It seems the police are required by the bleeding hearts to be telepathic and know exactly what the perpetrator is going to do before he does it.

I'd like to see the complainers armed with nothing but a pea-shooter go in to handle a situation like that and see what they do. "But," they cry, "the police are trained to handle those situations. We're not!" That's exactly right. Let them do their job and then say "thank you" to them.

It's sad that a young man lost his life. No one minimizes that. But it was his choice, not the police officer's.

Let's put the responsibility for this tragedy where it belongs -- right in Dustan Long's lap.

Steve Lombard
Laie, Hawaii

Police ought to show more restraint

Are our police officers showing restraint while handling situations or are they just trigger happy?

There have been a bunch of police shootings in the past few years and every time, the suspect came out in a bodybag.

I think we, as a society, should rethink our policies on handling situations like the Wahiawa shooting. In my opinion, police officers should learn all they can about the suspect before resorting to excessive force, let close friends and family members talk with the suspect, and give the suspect time to think before taking action.

Situations like these tend to scare people into making rash decisions.

Dustan Hao

Police couldn't put others in danger

Regarding Brenda Upchurch's letter ("Shooting could have been avoided," Letters, June 8): Why in the world would you want a family member to enter into the type of situation that was seen last Sunday? It violates police protocol and would have put Dustan Long's mother in danger. She could have made the situation worse or even become a hostage. Just because it was his mother, that doesn't mean Long was in a coherent state of mind to understand his actions.

Keep in mind that we are talking about a man who shot up a car fleeing and who took a shot at two officers. Let's try to stop the police-bashing and respect the things that these people do for us as a society. It might be easy to pass judgment, but it isn't as easy to be a police officer.

Noah Pekelo
Henderson, Nev.

Can't sharpshooters wound instead of kill?

It would seem rather sad that the police always have one, two, sometimes three, good aims, or reasons to kill would-be assailants brandishing guns in their presence. Almost a 100 percent record of success to be proud of?

Aren't there other areas of the body these so-called sharp-shooters can aim at to render a person harmless, instead of certain death, and questionable aftermaths?

One would think it should deter gun ownership, unless the person is suicidal.

Oh, what happened to rubber bullets?

Fairness. Integrity. Respect. A fine motto.

John Werrill

[QUOTABLES] "It's not enough to make money." Steve Case, AOL Time Warner chairman, telling students at his alma mater, Punahou School, that public service should be as important as making good grades or being financially successful. Case is donating millions of dollars to rebuild Punahou's middle school, which will be named after him. "We're free to put it up and we're free to take it down. And we're free to put it back up again if we wish." Patrick Downes, Spokesman for the Catholic Church, on the cross at St. Jude's church in Kaneohe that has been the subject of dispute with advocates of separation of church and state. The city is exploring a way to amend the law to allow the erecting of crosses, but not other religious symbols.

Let private operator run State Hospital

Hooray for the governor. The macadamias running the State Hospital have had 10 years to raise the level of care for the mentally ill to meet minimum standards; they have failed. They have more federal oversight now than ever before.

The unions are equally responsible. They have 600 employees to care for 168 patients. They turn a blind eye to overtime, abuse and neglect.

A privately run hospital, as the governor proposes, may be able to garner federal reimbursements that the state has failed to obtain. It may actually warn the neighbors when there is an "elopement." They may actually use electronic bracelets to monitor the dangerous patients. They may actually be able to tell the taxpayers how they spend the millions that the Department of Health has failed to account for during the past two years.

Health Director Bruce Anderson has it backwards. The object is to keep the mentally ill out of prisons that are now overflowing with such persons because we have failed to treat those among us who are ill.

Pauline Arellano
Member
State Planning Council on Mental Health

Separation clause has been misinterpreted

Regarding your June 6 article, "Legislator defends letter promoting religious event:"

The challenge goes out to Mitchell Kahle and his tiny group to show where in the Constitution it declares there is to be a "separation between church and state." I don't find it, but I do find the First Amendment, which clearly states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

"Separation of church and state" -- an expression that Chief Justice William Rehnquist described as a misleading metaphor -- appears in an exchange of letters between President Thomas Jefferson and the Baptist Association of Danbury, Conn. (Jan. 1, 1802).

The Danbury Baptists believed the First Amendment suggested the right to freedom of religion was government-given rather than God-given, and were therefore concerned that the government might someday attempt to regulate religious expression. Jefferson's letter, which contains the misleading metaphor "a wall of separation between church and state," was written to assure the Danbury Baptists and others that our government would never interfere with the free exercise of religion.

In fact, Jefferson later declared: "In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the general government."

Back then the court understood Jefferson's intent, summarizing it: "The rightful purposes of civil government are for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order. In this...is found the true distinction between what properly belongs to the church and what to the state" (Reynolds vs. U.S., 1878).

The intent was not to keep religion out of government, but to keep government out of religion.

Judi Marks
Pearl City

Public funds can't be used for baccalaureate

In your June 7 editorial, you say that Rep. William Stonebraker is being unfairly targeted by separation-of- church-and-state activists for promoting a baccalaureate service at Kaiser High School. This is not correct. He is accused of using his legislative office and personnel to coordinate the event. That means that he was allegedly using public funds to promote a private religious event.

A baccalaureate is a Christian religious service, and state employees and state offices should not be used to coordinate the event.

If the allegations are true, Rep. William Stonebraker must be sanctioned for his actions.

Gregory Ramos
Guerneville, Calif.
Former Hawaii resident

Are atheists the only ones fit for office?

If I were to believe and follow the truth as espoused by the so-called Hawaii Citizens for the Separation of State and Church organization, the only people that meet their standards to hold office are atheists.

I contend that elected officials do not surrender their First Amendment right to freedom of religion in order to hold public office. If we, as the governed, hold in high esteem intangible qualities such as compassion, love, understanding, empathy, perseverance and tenacity in our elected leaders, it is irrelevant if those qualities are borne of the individual's religious faith.

I truly wonder if such an attack would be employed against Rep. William Stonebraker if he were a Muslim or Jew instead of a Christian?

Al Coleman
Waipahu

Hollywood-style wedding was too much

The marriage celebration of Al Massini and his fourth wife, as you described it, takes readers to a whole new landscape (Star-Bulletin, June 4).

The journey of sensibilities starts just beyond vulgar, speeds through wretched excess and seems to arrive in the vicinity of tacky, tacky, tacky.

With all these material blessings, one wonders why a clergyman performed the "ceremoney."

Beverly Kai

Supreme Court botched golf decision

You guys really slipped a disk on the Casey Martin editorial (June 5). In fact, you hooked your shot way out-of-bounds.

What business has the Supreme Court to regulate the rules of professional athletic competition? Walking the course most certainly is an indispensable feature of competitive golf at its highest level.

Remember Ken Venturi's stunning victory at Congressional in the U.S. Open in withering heat? No golfer who was not in tip-top shape would have made it through those gruelling 36 holes on the final day.

Suppose the same conditions arose again. All the golfers except Martin would be slogging it through in the blazing sun while Casey cruised the course on wheels. And suppose Martin won? Wouldn't the victory be tainted in view of Venturi's feat?

This is not an issue of the snobbery of the PGA Tour. This is not an issue of equal access under the Americans with Disabilities Act. It does not matter that this is a rare occurrence.

The Supreme Court has stuck its nose where it does not belong. The court has extended its authority far beyond its constitutional mandate, all the way to rule-making in professional sports. The USGA can make its own rules, thank you, and preserve the integrity of the sport as it sees fit.

The Supreme Court decision will stand, but it is wrong.

Michael G. Palcic

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