Unfettered Letters

Always drive like you’re on camera

All drivers should treat every stoplight as if it were a camera stoplight. Period.

It is a sad time when a camera makes a driver follow the law to slow down and stop at only a few intersections.

Put safety first, period.

Tom Edmondson
Kansas City

Red-light cameras aren’t about safety

If you buy into the propaganda that the recently activated red-light cameras are for your safety, then I have some oceanfront property in Arizona that you might be interested in, too.

According to the Missouri Driver’s Guide, motorists are supposed to stop at yellow lights, but only if it’s safe to do so. However, people are now speeding more excessively than ever through intersections or slamming their brakes to avoid tickets. This type of driving can be more dangerous than running the red light.

It’s no coincidence that the red-light cameras were activated in Kansas City shortly before the announcement of huge budget cuts.

It’s not about your safety; it’s about money.

Eli Noland
Blue Springs

Crack down on radio noise

Kansas City has much more pressing issues than adding the new siren to patrol cars (3/2, Local, “KC police use Rumbler siren to make presence felt; The low-frequency device, used to increase awareness, creates a hum drivers can feel”).

The Kansas City Police Department should start enforcing the noise ordinance so all the people would not have to listen to the noise by the radios in the vehicles. This would also produce revenue to help pay for the officers to keep on patrol. While traveling in the other communities in the area, we don’t have to listen to the noise. One good example is North Kansas City, which has signs posted stating “noise ordinance strictly enforced.” You can drive there in peace.

It would cost a fortune in these bad financial times to install these on all emergency vehicles. The Fire Department and MAST would also need them on their vehicles.

In the area where I live, around I-29 and Barry Road, most of the sirens are on Fire Department vehicles and MAST ambulances. We seldom see any patrol cars in the area.

Jack Carey
Kansas City

Car crashes are violent

To the people who bemoan Kansas City’s new-found interest in controlling red light runners and not “violent crime” (2/26, Voices), rest assured that a traffic accident is usually extremely violent. And we spend much more time in our cars than we do walking in dark alleys at night in scary neighborhoods.

Roy DeGregory
Prairie Village

Cold-medicine bill

Requiring prescriptions for cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine is a bad idea (2/17, Local, “Measure aimed at meth producers”). The fee to see a doctor here is $80. Most people can’t afford that just to get cold medicine.

There has to be a better way to control this.

Terry Baker
Nevada, Mo.

KC must crack down on begging

Kansas City needs to get real about the people who beg day after day at intersections, on the Plaza and on highway ramps. Beggars are often substance abusers who are frustrated that social service programs don’t provide alcohol or recreational drugs. Folks who give to the beggars, while good-hearted, provide money for either alcohol or drugs, fueling the substance-abuse problems.

Kansas City should pass laws prohibiting street begging. Beggars are a traffic hazard. Begging can cause accidents at traffic lights by distracting drivers.

Beggars hurt commerce, tourism and the reputation of the city. Tourists on the Country Club Plaza are scared by the unsavory characters begging at the intersections.

Instead of falling for their ruse and giving street beggars money, take what you would have given them and spend it at one of the struggling businesses in the city. For the greater good, give a struggling business owner a much-needed foothold in tough economic times.

Bill O’Brien
Kansas City

How to change ‘Murder Factory’

Thanks you for the very good reporting by The Star on the “Murder Factory” (1/25,-27, A-1). Two items need to be corrected in ZIP code 64130 in order to move forward and begin healing.

No. 1 is to provide new, fresh, strong black leadership. This means casting off the first-generation entitlement black leadership. These black leaders have shown no inclination to admonish the people they claim to lead and represent. Worse are their guilty white accomplices and enablers who want to turn their heads and shovel more money to the failed Kansas City School District.

No. 2 is the school district leadership needs to segregate the students who want to learn and send them to protected environments. The troublemakers need to be sent to a disciplinary school environment for attitude adjustments.

It sure will be a tough sell, and it will not be easy. But a tough, comprehensive program to address the problem is needed from people who care for the future of the kids in the “Murder Factory” and Kansas City. Anything less is to promote the status quo.

Ron McCabe
Kansas City

Kline deserves respect

The media’s perennial assault campaign against Phill Kline as he has dealt with the George Tiller abortion clinic is just an example of the tactics used to divert our attention from the real issue of abortion. We are a country that has legalized murder through a Supreme Court ruling and has further facilitated the slaughter of unborn children through the many laws passed to protect a woman’s “rights.”

Some of these lawmakers and Supreme Court judges who have ruled in favor of abortion have since died, and now they know who is the only author of moral law and our true judge.

If we really accepted God’s laws as the standards for those we enact, Kline would not be the whipping boy the media has made him. In fact, he would most likely get the respect he truly deserves. You see, he understands law as few in his profession do.

Ed Cronin
Shawnee

Calling us ‘cowards’

It is very disheartening when the attorney general of the United States, Eric Holder, calls us a nation of cowards (2/19, A-5). Even though he was referring to our conduct in race relations, I would never expect one of our government leaders to call us cowards. To make it even worse, he gave no direction for his desired change in racial relations. He just provided ridicule.

Congress might have been a better starting place for the attorney general to vent his displeasure. There are some racially organized caucuses in Congress that should disband. Any government grouping by race sends a harmful message of separatism.

It should be evident to Mr. Holder that racial change is occurring in this country. However, people live and socialize with those with whom they have things in common, regardless of race. Government cannot and should not try to control socialization.

B.J. Taylor
Overland Park

America’s top cop has an attitude. The attorney general of the United States accused the people of our country of being cowards on matters of race. This is a slap on the face of millions of Americans who worked long, back-breaking hours to elect an African-American as president, who subsequently appointed the attorney general.

How is this man going to keep equilibrium in the legal system? He is obviously biased.

Frank Statesel
Overland Park

Thanks, police, for catching suspect

I read The Star’s editorial on the conduct of the Kansas City and Kansas City, Kan, police during the arrest of the high-speed chase suspect (2/19, Local, “Police must be held accountable for actions”). I’m not sure what upsets me more: That the suspect will likely face a reduced sentence because of jail underfunding, or that The Star drew attention away from the outstanding job and inter-agency cooperation involved in capturing this hoodlum with minimal impact on public safety.

This guy and his friends cruised around town while allegedly hopped up on drugs and alcohol, evading police at high speed, recklessly endangering citizens and officers. They were safely and professionally captured by law enforcement. Yet The Star fixated on the fact that an officer took a couple extra jabs during the arrest?

Instead of touting the KSHB video as incriminating evidence of this poor, poor man getting picked on by the big, mean police officers, how about turning the tables and hailing the video as evidence of the outstanding job law enforcement did in bringing this thug in with minimal harm to himself and others?

Thank you, officers, for doing an outstanding job.

Dennis M. Gerrity
Overland Park

I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to watch the exclusive report from the helicopter news crew who were following the police chase and arrest. If it weren’t for them, we would probably never have known how badly fine upstanding citizens who steal cars, run from law enforcement officers in two states and endanger the safety of everyone else on the road are mistreated.

I’m fairly sure that the folks in the helicopter have never worn a police uniform and experienced the adrenaline flow that comes with a chase, or a confrontation with someone who might want to take your life. It’s easy to be self-righteous and judgmental from the safety of a helicopter. And, of course, we don’t want to forget our wonderful area news channel that ran that footage ad nauseam.

Let’s put the focus on respect for the fine law enforcement people who put their lives on the line every day to ensure that people like those reporting the news can do so in comparative safety. Police officers are entitled to the same presumption of innocence until proven guilty that the rest of us enjoy

W.F Miller
Lone Jack