To the editor:
(re: “Silence slows police reform,” June 18)
The problem with the New York Police Department anti-crime units that are now being disbanded is not that their members are “cowboys.” It’s that many are racists.
Despite what Commissioner Dermot Shea thinks, giving racists different assignments will not stop them from targeting innocent Blacks.
I’m sure the people of color who had their businesses looted would not have objected to the cops of any color using brute force against the looters.
They object to being targeted by racist cops for no reason other than the color of their skin.
That’s why the racists must be fired, not reassigned.
If Black people had a problem with cowboys, there wouldn’t be so many who are John Wayne fans.
But lawmen played by Wayne targeted criminals, not innocent Blacks.
Richard Warren