Salon | Letters to the editor

_______________MAIL ROOM DISPATCH ...

One word. A whole lot of controversy. Debra Dickerson stirred things up yet again last week with her take on the "niggardly scandal" that had Washington watching its language usage for an entire week. Most readers objected more to Dickerson's analysis of the word itself than to her exhortation to whites to watch their language, and to blacks to toughen up.
Sean Wilentz, who organized the statement published by Historians in Defense of the Constitution, and Jesse Lemisch, a left-wing historian who tried to organize a counterstatement, wrote in to give their version of events as laid out in David Horowitz's recent column.
D. Renee wrote a particularly fine letter agreeing with Sheryl Ifill's editorial about Congress' habit of feigning concern for children's reactions to the impeachment. Renee's letter takes it a step further, asking Rep. Mary Bono what she tells her children.
And today we feature letters written in response to Lori Leibovich's probing article on the police killing of Tyisha Miller in Riverside, Calif.

_______________THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF TYISHA MILLER BY LORI LEIBOVICH (02/08/99)

For years blacks have spoken out against the brutality we've suffered at the hands of the police and a majority of whites have supported the police either vocally or by silently consenting. When blacks would ask for support from the court systems and their white neighbors, we were told to stop whining and to let the police do their job. Now that the police have turned on whites, in the case of David Bruner, there is amazement that the blacks are not rushing to support their cause. We are willing to support those who suffer, but in many cases our hands are tied trying to comfort our black brothers and sisters who are still being penalized for their skin color.
The Bruners are grieving. I feel sorry for them. It's tough to lose a loved one and especially in an unnecessary manner. I also grieve for Matthew Shepard's family. Their son was brutally murdered because of his sexual preference. I feel sorry for any person who goes through these ordeals. I only wish that the same amount of outrage felt on the part of white America for the Shepard murder were felt every time police murder a black or Hispanic. Maybe then some of this needless violence would end.
-- Samala Henry
Lori Leibovich does an admirable job of carefully examining the Tyisha Miller case and laying out the ways in which it could be possible that she was not killed on account of her race. However, it just as carefully avoids the single piece of incontrovertible evidence -- more than 20 shots were fired at Miller. This overkill is what inspires such passionate accusations against the Riverside Police Department, and this overkill is also precisely what makes the case defy logical, reasonable explanation. Besides race, what could possibly explain the rapid-fire execution -- during a 911 call! -- of a young, physically ill black woman? Only a black person could be imagined as so potent a threat as to require a massive volley of bullets, despite being unconscious, despite no crime being committed, despite no evidence of any actual material threat even remotely equivalent. The deadly passion of the police is what inspires the righteous passion Leibovich attempts to undermine, which she can only do so by leaving out the key fact of the case.
-- Sage Wilson
It is indeed a tragedy that police brutality in Riverside (and in America in general) is discussed strictly in terms of race. Although it is clear that people of color -- although as a group they are especially vulnerable to what singer Marvin Gaye called "trigger-happy policing" -- are hardly the only ones. Police brutality has been known to happen to gays, political protestors and people who simply don't "look right." It is time we challenged the power of the U.S. law enforcement/industrial complex that uses any and all excuses -- the "war on drugs," the myth of the urban jungle, racism, classism and so on -- to rob us of our basic civil liberties. If we do this, Tyisha Miller and David Bruner will not have died in vain.
-- Peter Muir
Alameda, Calif.
N E X T+P A G E+| "The 'war on drugs' and the proliferation of cheap handguns ..."

_______________MAIL ROOM DISPATCH ...
	One word. A whole lot of controversy. Debra Dickerson stirred things up yet again last week with her take on the "niggardly scandal" that had Washington watching its language usage for an entire week. Most readers objected more to Dickerson's analysis of the word itself than to her exhortation to whites to watch their language, and to blacks to toughen up. Sean Wilentz, who organized the statement published by Historians in Defense of the Constitution, and Jesse Lemisch, a left-wing historian who tried to organize a counterstatement, wrote in to give their version of events as laid out in David Horowitz's recent column. D. Renee wrote a particularly fine letter agreeing with Sheryl Ifill's editorial about Congress' habit of feigning concern for children's reactions to the impeachment. Renee's letter takes it a step further, asking Rep. Mary Bono what she tells her children. And today we feature letters written in response to Lori Leibovich's probing article on the police killing of Tyisha Miller in Riverside, Calif.
_______________THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF TYISHA MILLER BY LORI LEIBOVICH (02/08/99)
	For years blacks have spoken out against the brutality we've suffered at the hands of the police and a majority of whites have supported the police either vocally or by silently consenting. When blacks would ask for support from the court systems and their white neighbors, we were told to stop whining and to let the police do their job. Now that the police have turned on whites, in the case of David Bruner, there is amazement that the blacks are not rushing to support their cause. We are willing to support those who suffer, but in many cases our hands are tied trying to comfort our black brothers and sisters who are still being penalized for their skin color. The Bruners are grieving. I feel sorry for them. It's tough to lose a loved one and especially in an unnecessary manner. I also grieve for Matthew Shepard's family. Their son was brutally murdered because of his sexual preference. I feel sorry for any person who goes through these ordeals. I only wish that the same amount of outrage felt on the part of white America for the Shepard murder were felt every time police murder a black or Hispanic. Maybe then some of this needless violence would end. -- Samala Henry Lori Leibovich does an admirable job of carefully examining the Tyisha Miller case and laying out the ways in which it could be possible that she was not killed on account of her race. However, it just as carefully avoids the single piece of incontrovertible evidence -- more than 20 shots were fired at Miller. This overkill is what inspires such passionate accusations against the Riverside Police Department, and this overkill is also precisely what makes the case defy logical, reasonable explanation. Besides race, what could possibly explain the rapid-fire execution -- during a 911 call! -- of a young, physically ill black woman? Only a black person could be imagined as so potent a threat as to require a massive volley of bullets, despite being unconscious, despite no crime being committed, despite no evidence of any actual material threat even remotely equivalent. The deadly passion of the police is what inspires the righteous passion Leibovich attempts to undermine, which she can only do so by leaving out the key fact of the case. -- Sage Wilson It is indeed a tragedy that police brutality in Riverside (and in America in general) is discussed strictly in terms of race. Although it is clear that people of color -- although as a group they are especially vulnerable to what singer Marvin Gaye called "trigger-happy policing" -- are hardly the only ones. Police brutality has been known to happen to gays, political protestors and people who simply don't "look right." It is time we challenged the power of the U.S. law enforcement/industrial complex that uses any and all excuses -- the "war on drugs," the myth of the urban jungle, racism, classism and so on -- to rob us of our basic civil liberties. If we do this, Tyisha Miller and David Bruner will not have died in vain. -- Peter Muir Alameda, Calif. N E X T+P A G E+\| "The 'war on drugs' and the proliferation of cheap handguns ..."