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Headline distorts toll
by South Bay police
Re: “Losing control” (Page A1, Oct. 8).
The headline “Losing control” regarding police handling of people suffering a mental health crisis along with the other sub-headlines were very misleading.
While every death is a tragedy, in a city of a million people such as San Jose I think that having around a hundred deaths over the course of eight years isn’t something to smear police about.
It also seems lost that people with mental health issues are much more likely to commit crimes due to lack of control or reasoning, hence calling them mentally ill, so of course police will encounter them more. It is the police’s job to protect law-abiding people from others regardless of their condition.
Max Ritter
Livermore
U.S. problems should
have Biden’s attention
President Joe Biden announced that he will support Israel and send them resources in order to help aid the Israel-Hamas war.
I do not believe that we should become involved in this war. This country is a very diverse country with many different ethnicities and religions; choosing one side and not the other creates havoc and hate crimes.
The United States sends mass amounts of weapons to Israel knowing that Palestine is already a defenseless country. Personally, it does not seem logical for the United States to continue sending millions of dollars and weapons to Israel when there are more important matters to focus on in our country.
Alondra Venegas
Union City
Better use for U.S.
funds than Gaza war
Few recent articles explain Israel’s Palestinian mistreatment (called by the U.N. and others apartheid) for 75 years and increased in Gaza the last 16. This side of how Israel may have crossed the line in the war must be considered in peace talks.
When our president says he sides with Israel he states an unfair bias. Israel’s strong illegal mistreatment can only be continued with funding from the United States. Biden should cancel his pledge to send war equipment and money. That might force Israel to admit this is a two-sided reality check and perhaps create a path toward more sustainable and fair treatment on both sides.
There is a growing crowd of people who do not want this immoral war to continue in our country’s name. We have better uses for our taxes.
Mary Sue Meads
Oakland
Democrats should not
ditch women, minorities
Re: “Democrats must alter platform to draw support” (Page A6, Oct. 12).
Steve Koppman thinks the Democratic Party should stop prioritizing the rights of women and minorities, and join with the Republicans in othering those groups to “unite most of America.”
But it is women who are the majority of American voters; and Republicans who are intent on taking their rights away. It’s the MAGA crowd that gerrymanders congressional seats to suppress minority voting. It’s Republicans who are talking about taking the vote away from young people who object to the MAGA denial of the effects of global climate change on their future lives.
Surely what is required is for Republicans to return to “conservatism” and rejoin the majority of voters in America — women plus ethnic minorities — in working towards a society of inclusivity, fairness and concern about our country’s future, under our Constitution.
Howard Thomas
Los Gatos
Immigrant crisis is
really a humanity crisis
The immigration crisis is not at the U.S.-Mexico border. The crisis exists in the places people, human beings, are fleeing. There must be incredible danger and hopelessness for people to take or send their children, whom they certainly love, on such a perilous, uncertain journey. There is no wall or moat or anything that will prevent people from doing whatever they can to survive.
The best solution for ending “the crisis” is to address it where it is. People living in free, fair, safe and open societies have no reason to put their or their children’s lives at risk. Promoting freedom and democracy in our hemisphere will do more to stem illegal immigration than any structural barrier. The solution to ending illegal immigration begins with seeing the humanity of the people.
Barry Gardin
Hayward
