The police were right and Councilman John Drayman is wrong. The very day the Glendale News-Press reported the Easter Bunny traffic sting operation (“Sting like a bunny,” April 1), I drove down Jackson Street to the main post office and saw an accident that left a car canted across a resident’s front lawn and an unconscious woman lying in the street, held up by a second woman, who may have been another pedestrian or the car’s driver.
What does it take in this town to slow drivers down and make them pay attention to what’s in front of them? If a police officer in a giant Easter Bunny costume saves just one life by risking death on our streets in order to increase driver awareness of their responsibility to obey traffic laws, thank God for it. Nobody should abuse Glendale police officers for enforcing laws.
Drayman is a highly respected City Council member with opinions worth hearing, but in this instance, vitriolic criticism of the police was out of place, and somewhat surprising from an elected official. I don’t believe adults are so easily shocked or confused by a person in an Easter Bunny costume as to invalidate an effective police strategy and well-deserved traffic tickets.
Drayman may call into question the ability of the police to conduct effective sting operations with the legal tools at their command, but he could have spoken privately to the chief of police or the city manager, rather than publicly attack the police.
His opinion was reported in the News-Press and in the Los Angeles Times. He owes Glendale police an equally public apology.
SUSAN STEPHENSON
Glendale
Suspensions not proper punishment
