Kudos to all for nabbing Long Island shooting suspect

Congratulations to the Nassau County Police Department, with help from the NYPD, on the apprehension of Gabriel DeWitt Wilson so efficiently and quickly ["One dead, two hurt in market shooting," News, April 21].

And a special thanks to the community for cooperating with the police in finding him. I was proud to be a Long Islander. This efficiency was a great example to our nation of how a police department should conduct itself. In about three hours, Wilson was apprehended without additional lives lost.

Joseph P. Rella, Farmingdale

The Stop & Shop shootings in West Hempstead again attest that gun control does nothing to prevent gun violence ["LI chapter in America’s sad gun violence story," Editorial, April 21].

New York State has one of the nation’s strictest gun control laws. Albany now wants to add even more restrictive laws — for example, a limit on how much ammunition a licensed gun owner can buy a month for target shooting. How is this going to stop a violent criminal?

It’s deplorable to me that our political leaders and Newsday’s editorial board have used this tragedy to further bolster their single-sided agenda of ineffective gun control.

Vincent Cristiano, Ronkonkoma

Editor’s note: The writer is a life member of the National Rifle Association.

Chauvin guilty only because of video

Yes, it was good to see police testifying for the prosecution in the Derek Chauvin trial, but I think it happened only because they got caught ["Ex-cop Chauvin found guilty in killing of Floyd," News, April 21].

The Minneapolis Police Department news release only mentioned that " . . . he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress. Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance where he died a short time later." The press release further says that no weapons were used and no officers were injured.

Had there not been a video recording that would have been the official version of events. In no way does it resemble even remotely the actual sequence of events. Until and unless police are honest and transparent in their own description of incidents in which they are involved, we will continue to see these types of incidents.

Leonard Cohen, Wantagh

Derek Chauvin has been sacrificed to the racial terrorists of Black Lives Matter. It’s an ominous development when American jurisprudence is determined not by the weight of evidence, but by the threats of peaceful protests and the resultant millions of dollars in damages they incur via destruction and looting.

George Floyd was a violent paroled felon who resisted arrest, not Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat, but Blacks want equal outcome, not equal opportunity, and civil rights are now determined by force, not justice. Chauvin was a police officer a year away from retirement. His life mattered, but now he faces decades in prison while Floyd’s family members are millionaires who received a call from the president.

Bradley Morris, Astoria

Long Island racial justice "activists" say more needs to be done to cure racial injustice ["Emotions flow in wake of historic verdict," News, April 21].

How does anyone define this slippery concept of "racial injustice"? All over America, I see countless numbers of Black lawyers, police chiefs, college professors, school superintendents, principals, doctors, engineers, news anchors, journalists, mayors, judges and civil service employees.

Does none of this clearly illustrate, to those without biased blinders, that a large measure of "racial justice" has finally been achieved in America?

Jay Roberts, Jericho

There was never much doubt that Derek Chauvin intentionally killed George Floyd. It’s a sad irony that many more Blacks have been killed by police while Chauvin’s trial was underway. America needs radical change in law enforcement, and elsewhere, to live up to her ideals — the whole world is watching.

Robert W. Mays, Freeport

President Joe Biden doesn’t realize that the George Floyd case was only based on excessive police force when making an arrest ["Biden to America on trial verdict: ‘We can’t stop here,’ " News, April 21].

To me, the divisive issue of racial injustice was introduced by local activists. Unfortunately, our president has now inflamed the issue of racial injustice in our country.

William Adams Littell, Moriches

When former President Donald Trump came to Brentwood on July 28, 2017, he told a room full of law enforcement officers that he encouraged being "rough" with suspects, aka innocent citizens. Many officers cheered. Then police officer Derek Chauvin does just that and is convicted of murder for doing what the president of the United States told him to do.

Who’s responsible?

Dennis Dunne, Selden