Readers React: Why Fay Wells should no longer feel threatened by police

To the editor: I’m sorry for Fay Wells — who wrote in the Washington Post of having about 20 Santa Monica police officers show up, some with guns drawn, at her apartment after a neighbor incorrectly reported a burglary — that she feels unsafe. (“The police recording you need to hear after a black woman ‘broke into’ her own home,” Nov. 20)

She should feel safe. Police believed a burglary was in progress, and a thief is as likely to steal without a firearm as someone is to go shopping without wearing clothes.

Wells’ neighbor set the expectations of the arriving police, who were concerned for their lives and drew their guns. The situation was resolved without incident. The police weren’t motivated by race to draw their weapons; they were motivated by what they expected to find.

My advice is for Wells to put together a nice holiday basket and take it to her local police station. She should also request that the police go to the original reporting party and explain how much of a racist he is.

The reality is that Wells is now known by her local police in a good way; should she ever need their assistance, she is a top priority.

She should feel safe.

Rich Flynn, Huntington Beach

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To the editor: I find the quotes from the Santa Monica Police Department to be remarkably self-serving, as is the amount of space your paper devoted to analyzing the 47-minute recording the department released to the public. You fail to quote what, to me, was the most powerful sentence in her account:

“I had never looked down the barrel of a gun or at the face of a man with a loaded weapon pointed at me. In his eyes, I saw fear and anger. I had no idea what was happening, but I saw how it would end: I would be dead in the stairwell outside my apartment, because something about me — a 5-foot-7, 125-pound black woman — frightened this man with a gun. I sat down, trying to look even less threatening, trying to de-escalate.”

She was in her home, she was unarmed, she did not authorize a search, she was afraid, she still has not been given an accurate list of the 19 officers at the scene. This behavior is unacceptable in my town or any town. Shame on SMPD.

Susan Adelman, Santa Monica

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