Letters to the Editor, June 4-10

The Editor:

I think that the renewal to authorize Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was delayed by the U.S. Senate. The present clash of public and police begs for honest discussion and resolution. A good place to start is on police methods which are often authorized by FISA which claims to represent the public interest. They need to explain themselves and their purpose.

The police actions that come before FISA seek approval to go beyond the normal means of lawful behavior. It is not just privacy rights that are violated but the ensuing fall-out of damages to reputation, jobs, social relationships with little assurance and no accountability that they even have the right suspect. Surveillance, used or abused, can thus provide another way around a citizen right to protect himself. Thus, a secret court gives secret police the right to spy on us, use the information as they please with no due process or appeal or speedy trial.

A high-level discussion of FISA could give a more neutral forum for an essential dialogue on police methods and how to use them. It may finally be the time combatants listen and try to understand each other as many years of problems now boil over.

At this moment, two issues must be settled. 1. The killing of unarmed citizens must stop. This blatant disregard of human life portrayed on camera must be punished swiftly and fairly if possible, as the video evidence is compelling to the extreme. Someone other than police must investigate such matters as it is a natural conflict of interest to both rely on fellow officers to have your back and also have the objectivity to turn them in.

2. The police are tasked with keeping order in a disordered society. Always on the front line and usually under fire or the potential for it, they cannot be teachers, social workers, lawmakers, doctors or judges especially when chaos rules the streets. These duties should be filled by those charged to do them so that police can use their skills and judgments to enforce the order that is supposed to be there. And we must return to issues of profiling especially black Americans to eradicate racism in every aspect of our society. We have
run out of room and we have run out of time.

We need a place at the same table to listen to the same testimony and evidence on what police think they need and what the public expects and will not tolerate. We all want to be safe and we all think we want to be fair. Instead of always a courtroom, why not Congress, who are the lawmakers along with all the players including the press, to engage the public. We must have police and we must have justice and they must never be opposed to each other. In a democracy, we cannot have one without the other.

Sharon L Robinson

Blaine

The Editor:

Just back from our walk to the Blaine pier this evening and I feel the need to share about a near tragedy we witnessed. It is something of a rite of passage around here to jump off the dock as seen in this photo from The Northern Light a few years ago. We saw four young men contemplating the jump. One had already done it and was back up on the dock. An older adult male had come over to the group and started goading the others into jumping, calling them chicken and belittling them for not being tough like their pal.

Then a boat came by and one of the boys yelled, “Can we swim to your boat?” The boat captain turned the boat toward them and killed the engine so the boys jumped in and swam out. They got onboard from the swim deck for a few minutes and asked if he could bring them closer to the pier. He did a little bit, but not close enough in my opinion as I had noticed three of the four boys not being very strong swimmers on their way out.

They jumped in for their return trip and right away the weakest swimmer was in trouble crying, “Help!” This is after the boater had left the scene, so too had the goader, leaving myself and my boyfriend the only adults present. I ran to get a life ring, the rope was badly tangled and it didn’t go out far enough. As I was winding it back in to throw again a young man arrived on the scene. He quickly realized the boy was in trouble and in a flash he had tossed his phone, kicked off his shoes and dove in. He swam out and thankfully saved the boy and got him back to the dock. It was an amazing selfless act of heroism.

We all thanked him for his quick action as he left the pier without leaving his name. The last we saw him he was on his phone with someone saying, “Could you come and pick us up? I had to jump in and save someone from drowning.” A real hero. The lesson is, peer pressure can lead to tragedy, especially when irresponsible adults encourage it. Please be safe. Don’t jump off the pier if you’re not a lifeguard-grade swimmer. Currents and cold water can lead to tragedy; tell your loved ones not to chance it.

Allison Ryser

Blaine

To the editor and fellow Blaine citizens,

During these difficult times, it is important to demonstrate love and empathy, even if we don’t always ‘feel’ like it. Hopefully our hearts will catch up to our actions and we all will be changed for the better.

Bonnie Onyon

Blaine