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penalty is wrong
Re: “DA will seek death penalty” (Page A1, June 4).
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 community, 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 A6, June 4).
Spot on commentary. San Jose councilmember’s pay is $169,000 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 officials 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 important issues.
Today’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.
Today’s political leaders also have forgotten the meaning of good government, meaning to be responsible for specific aspects of municipal affairs, such as public works, finance and public safety.
Jeff Staben
Santa Cruz
Homelessness need not
be permanent identity
Re: “Idea for arrests picks up support” (Page A1, June 5).
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 public 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 health.” 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 always 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 vehicle 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 culture 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 report 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 most of our economic problems on China.
Without trade from China, supplies and labor would be too scarce to fill demand, and inflation would double. Most countries of the world, like ours, have traded with China since the days of the early explorers like Magellan and Cortez.
If our economy 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 few World War II stories my father shared.
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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 service, who insulted veterans, who violated Arlington Cemetery, who now craves a military parade on his birthday — $45 million, which should go to world aid. While acknowledging U.S. Army’s 250th 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
