Police Brutality

Re “Seeing Police Through a Glass Darkly,” Commentary, May 29: Norah Vincent’s eyewitness account of a beating was interesting because, in this commentary, every attempt was made to explain the officers’ use of excessive force, including comments made by the sergeant while Vincent was filing a complaint.

Trying to explain the actions of the officers through the adrenaline rush of a fight, or justify the use of excessive force by saying that your perspective is in error does not deny the fact that many departments’ use-of-force policies state that when the use of force is de-escalated by the suspect, the officers are supposed to de-escalate their use of force as well, which they clearly did not do in this situation--and as they failed to do in the beating of Rodney King.

Mary Shelton

Riverside