Readers React: Cops who want to help the homeless should put away their guns

To the editor: If a picture is worth a thousand words, the photographs showing Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies investigating a homeless encampment on the San Gabriel River with weapons drawn speaks very loudly. (“With El Niño danger passed, focus shifts on homeless river dwellers,” April 23)

I have been told that law enforcement officers do not draw their weapons unless they feel they will need to use them. So, does that mean they were planning to use deadly force to roust these people who are already at the margins of our society? Your subheadline mentions the deputies were “trying to help the homeless.” Was this supposed to be a trust-building exercise?

The Times’ photographer documented a troubling reality about the relationship of law enforcement to those who are disenfranchised and powerless in our society. If deputies need more training to feel less threatened in situations like this one, fine. But don’t roust the homeless with guns drawn.

Martina Ebert, Claremont

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To the editor: “Cleaning up” homeless encampments is a misnomer. Unless the people connected to this inevitable human detritus are given actual places to go after “cleaning up,” you’re simply moving it all to another place until it becomes untenable and therefore worthy of yet another vague article in The Times.

And don’t get me started about the cop patrolling the encampment with her hand on her gun. Funny how we can vilify society’s most degraded victims with one photo.

Cathryn Roos, La Habra

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