LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

[April 13th, 2005] They Mess up, We Pay up

Lt. Todd Wyatt says he's self-accountable, and he wants us to trust him ["Good Cop, Bad Cop," WW, Feb. 23, 2005]. Self-accountability is insufficient when you work for the entire community. Yes, we are all human and we all make mistakes. That doesn't mean we don't pay for those mistakes.

It seems Wyatt would like the latitude to make mistakes and have the rest of us pay for them. Many Portland police officers apparently don't understand that trust is earned. When we read, time and time again, of mistakes made with little or no discipline while the offenders remain on our payroll, guess what? We become increasingly distrustful.

I don't believe we really expect perfection, but I think we are entitled to expect police officers to be truly exceptional. I also believe that truly good people expect to be held accountable for their performance.

[Richard] Rosenthal's proposal may in fact result in more "lazy" cops; time will tell. But in my 35 years living here, I have never seen the community more frustrated and deserving of answers. We have seen-and paid for-far too many examples of good people having bad experiences with our police. That needs to be fixed!

Wyatt's record of mistakes for which his managers and their superiors refused to hold him accountable are among the long list of reasons I hope the City Council passes the Rosenthal proposal. And then I'd like to see them hire someone with the integrity to make it work.

Jim Simpson
Northwest 11th Avenue

Freedom of Speech: MY-T-Fine

I've noticed that Fred Meyer seems to make your Rogue of the Week articles a bit more frequently since they removed your paper from their stores. Are your feelings still hurt?

On March 30, you picked on them because of their promotion of a book that you don't like. I guess freedom of speech only applies when you (Willamette Week) agree with it?

Guess what? People believe in a lot of things all over the world that you or I might find unbelievable or offensive.

When Harry Potter came out, many of the fundamentalists you are subtly demeaning raised quite a stink about the content in those books. Did Willy Week make Fred Meyer a Rogue for promoting that book too? After all, those series of books might be offensive to some fundamentalists who are also part of this "culturally diverse" city you mentioned.

I think you can let us make up our own minds about what to buy and what not to buy. I would ignore this book just like I do the scandal magazines at the cash registers and those so-called reality shows on TV.

Shawn O'Brien (Fred Meyer employee)
Southeast 74th Avenue

Salvation on Aisle 9

So QFC and Fred Meyer made Rogue of the Week [March 30] for promoting a novel based on a Christian theme. The separation of church and state is a well-known principle of our government. Are you suggesting we should expand the envelope to the separation of church and grocery store? Willamette Week is the last one I would expect to promote such censorship.

Wayne Boyle
Southwest Julia Street