Henderson police working under low standards

So, unresponsive Adam Greene is lying on the pavement when Henderson police Sgt. Brett Seekatz “enters the (camera) frame and kicks Greene five times in the head” (Review Journal, Feb. 9).

As a retired Air Force master sergeant, I feel safe in saying that if any Air Force member — security or law enforcement personnel in the performance of duty or not — had done that to anyone else, military or civilian, in a non-combat or other non-life threatening situation, he would have been court-martialed and sent to the he U.S. disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth to do a few years of hard labor. It would have been public record for the world to know.

What punishment was served on Sgt. Seekatz?

In comparison, I cannot decide if that means the Air Force is living to a higher standard, or the Henderson police to a lower one.

In my opinion, kicking someone five times in the head is like rear-ending another car — it is nearly impossible to weasel out of responsibility.

I truly hope that the U.S. Marine Corps in which our young son serves lives to the Air Force standard and not that of the Henderson police.

Don Dieckmann

Henderson

Isolated incident?

To the editor:

Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen has tried to justify his cops beating a man having a diabetic seizure (Friday Review-Journal). The mayor is saddened and says the incident is isolated and does not represent the police force.

Really?You could have fooled me, as I remember another incident a couple of years ago. Remember the ice cream lady who was on her way to help her elderly husband? He was having a medical problem and his wife was rushing to his side to help. A Henderson cop shot her to death, saying she had a knife in her hand.

I’ve always wondered why several cops couldn’t take a knife away from an elderly lady without shooting her to death.

The point here is that the Henderson cop who kicked the diabetic man should be fired on the spot and prosecuted in court. Will that happen? No way. We still have a “good old boy network” going on here and always will.

I don’t live in Henderson anymore as it just didn’t appeal to me, traffic and other things, etc. Just be careful, very careful, when driving through Henderson.

Leon Brooks

Pahurmp

Crime rate

To the editor:

In response to your story last week about the falling crime rate:

I am always a bit surprised that the most important contributing factor to the reduction in crime is seldom mentioned. It is much more difficult to be a criminal today.

A very small percentage of the population commit crimes. With the technology being utilized by police departments today it is almost impossible to evade detection by the use of aliases, etc. The enhanced fingerprinting system used by police departments reveals an arrestee’s true identity today.

Most criminals have a specific modus operandi that is detectable to investigators. Car thieves usually steal cars using the same tactics. Breaking and entering men do the same. So when a series of crimes occur, patterns develop. In an area plagued by car theft, for instance, once the perps are arrested that generally stops the activity.

The use of computers makes it much more difficult for the courts to under-sentence the guilty. And the time convicts actually serve is now more consistent.

So I am not the least bit surprised at the reduction in the crime statistics. This is where the old adage — you can’t see the forest from the trees — can be nicely inserted.

William Dwyer

Las Vegas

Greek to him

To the editor:

The problem of Greece’s massive debt has plagued the entire world’s economy for more than two years. Each time the issue surfaces, the stock market tanks.

The European Union has exhausted every measure to bail out Greece. So far, none has succeeded. Austerity plans by the Greek government were confronted with enormous protest from the people, some 80 percent of whom were receiving some kind of entitlement from the Greek government. It is of no surprise that their debt problem is not fugacious, it is insurmountable. It is an impossible task for Greece to pay its debt.

Greece is like a terminally ill patient who continues to receive resuscitative treatment. It should be allowed to die a natural death and let the entire world economy move on. There is little doubt in the mind of most economists that Greece will default sooner instead of later.

Alfonso Tiu

Henderson