Letters: San Mateo County’s return to death penalty is wrong
Submit your letter to the editor via this form Read more Letters to the Editor Return to death penalty is wrong Re DA will seek death penalty Page A June I respectfully disagree with San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe s decision to seek the death penalty in the Half Moon mass killings I am very sympathetic to families who lost loved ones Gov Newsom has set the stage to end the death penalty when he declared Our death penalty system has been by all measures a failure It has discriminated against defendants who are mentally ill black and brown or can t afford expensive legal representation It s a view now widely held The death penalty is widely opposed by the faith public from the late Pope Francis to Bishop Cantu of the diocese of San Jose We are not going back to the death penalty Terry McCaffrey President California People of Faith Palo Alto Link SJ council pay to performance Re Tie San Jose council salaries in part to their performance Page A June Spot on commentary San Jose councilmember s pay is a year When comparing their salaries with other city councils statewide it would seem that there should be a high standard for San Jose elected administrators to be paid on a performance basis They are the voice of their constituents and the policymakers who are held accountable while not fearing to vote on vital issues The present day s municipal representatives shouldn t fear advocacy groups unions and special campaign sponsors nor be influenced by politics or show their personal preferences They also shouldn t be influenced by progressive policies like from our state Legislature At present s political leaders also have forgotten the meaning of good establishment meaning to be responsible for specific aspects of municipal affairs such as constituents works finance and society safety Jeff Staben Santa Cruz Homelessness need not be permanent identity Re Idea for arrests picks up encouragement Page A June True this isn t about criminalizing homelessness But it isn t truly about science either When people harass passers-by or rape someone they re committing a crime When they form massive squalid encampments when they start fires after being ordered to leave they re indeed trespassing in fact they re abusing populace space These people aren t struggling with addiction They re often glad to be addicts until they re not The question is how even as addicts they behave toward others Beyond drug possession do they commit crimes That s a matter of ethics of agency not the Orwellian notion of behavioral robustness Consider the larger implications of pathologizing behaviors that busybodies don t like Better to call a crime a crime and leave it at that So much for the help they need Homelessness is a predicament not an identity It s a big planet There s inevitably someplace else to go another way to approach life Mitchell Halberstadt Oakland Careless media adds to antisemitic atmosphere A young woman in bloodstained slacks thrown into a bus by her Hamas captor and a recorded phone call from a Gazan boasting to his parents that he killed Jews these continue to haunt me What society produces people who violate a truce to inflict degradation and inhumanity on others Meanwhile The New York Times apologized for reporting Hamas s falsehoods about a bombed hospital and the Washington Post corrected a story about shooting at an aid station Unless we verify materials Hamas can emotionally manipulate us Former Ambassador Michael Oren observed that if demonizing Israel takes precedence over the media s responsibility to statement verified facts the United States becomes unsafe for innocent people marching for hostage freedom or exiting from a Jewish museum Sheree Roth Palo Alto China isn t responsible for U S economic woes It s very frustrating to me the way Donald Trump wants to blame largest part of our economic problems on China Without pact from China supplies and labor would be too scarce to fill demand and inflation would double Majority countries of the world like ours have traded with China since the days of the early explorers like Magellan and Cortez If our financial sector is losing ground from trading with China it will be twice as bad without it Bill Graham Salinas Trump s military parade has no place in U S I flew the flag Memorial Day I exist because my father left the deck of the USS Randolph to answer a call at the tower when a Kamikaze hit This is one of the limited World War II stories my father shared Related Articles Letters Downtown Brentwood station would be good for entire county Letters Proposed transit tax for BART isn t supportable Letters Donald Trump s cuts to research will set the U S back Letters Governing body must end payouts to Elon Musk Letters Fear and anger not age separate the GOP and Democrats Dad did not talk war stories he was humbled by the experience as were other veterans Yet we have a man who contrived to avoid utility who insulted veterans who violated Arlington Cemetery who now craves a military parade on his birthday million which should go to world aid While acknowledging U S Army s th anniversary the country does not need to glorify its military as dictators do Military parades glorify war those who serve know war is hell and collateral damage is excessive While this man gloats over his birthday parade I will hang the distress flag and join thousands protesting this extravaganza with my sign and chant U S aid not U S might Michael Fallon Santa Clara
