Slain Baton Rouge cops show police work is the highest calling

To the editor: “Keep your hands where I can see them.” “This is a call for backup — officer down!” (“The stories of the three officers killed in Baton Rouge,” July 18)

The mystery is not just whodunit. The mystery is why one of us would want to take the risks and become a police officer. These aren’t just physical risks, but also emotional, including the burden placed on an officer’s family.

Society (which means you and me) delegates the right and obligation to these chosen few to keep law and order. We even give them permission to punish us if need be. Theirs is the highest risk. Theirs is the highest respect.

Theirs is the highest calling.

Malin Dollinger, Rancho Palos Verdes

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To the editor: The society envisioned, created and nurtured by the National Rifle Assn. and its wholly owned subsidiary the Republican Party has grown to fruition.

We have a nation in which many citizens, regardless of their mental state, may legally be armed with military-style weapons. Anyone at any moment of rage or delusion can use a weapon to kill.

By the way, the killings of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La., revealed without any doubt that “good guys” with a gun cannot always stop a bad guy with a gun. The Dallas shooter was killed by a bomb-laden robot.

This is our country right now.

Frank Ferrone, El Cajon

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