I will be proudly and happily be voting to send Schiff back to Congress in hope of ending the gridlock by adding to the Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress.
JIM CARROLL
Burbank
City critics must beware of warnings
It taxes all reason that Richard Espiritu’s motive seemingly has been in harboring ill will toward the Police Department since 2001, and just now, seven years later, decides to expose a picture depicting the ethnic insensitivity of a police officer.
What the article in the Glendale News-Press confirms is that the photograph of the police car with the Armenian designation is evidence in an ongoing investigation (“Doubts cast over activist,” Aug. 26).
Had Espiritu been interested in retaliating against the Police Department, he would be studying records on the ethnic makeup of the Police Department, current and past lawsuits against the city, trends in hiring and promotions, details on the efficacy of sensitivity training to sworn officers, and perhaps 101 other ways.
What is most troubling in this episode is not so much the public exposure of some alleged isolated ethnic insensitivity at the Police Department, but official efforts to reduce the credibility of a city critic.
The outing of Espiritu in public is a not-too-veiled warning by city officials that if you dig too deeply and expose weaknesses in their policies, that they in turn could use their official investigative powers to dig and publicize as much dirt as would be fit for printing.
City critics beware.
It seems as if we’ve just turned to the Nixonian enemies page or the Valerie Plame chapter of governance.
This much is self-evident in the last few months: Oral communications has been pushed way back into the late night, we’ve seen a concerted effort to impugn the reputation of Barry Allen Silvarman, followed by an overt exposure of old misdeeds by Espiritu, and maybe some weaknesses of Mike Mohill would be next on the list.
Well, it’s been said that he who is without sin should throw the first stone, and I would question why members of this council are warming up their pitching arms, glass houses not withstanding.
HERBERT MOLANO
Tujunga
