Tyre Nichols, Hector LaSalle, and Hochul's housing plan

Using terror as a way to control

The sickening and infuriating beating of Tyre Nichols while he was handcuffed shows that training was never the issue provoking such brutality [“Report: Cop never explained stop to Nichols,” News, Feb. 10].

This brutality reflects a culture of control of minority communities and, too often, this kind of terror is the enforcement mechanism. More money and training are not the answer.

Swift and certain accountability and loss of pensions along with passage of the modest George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021 need the immediate attention of Congress.

A continued failure to act suggests approval of this brand of terror at the highest levels and is an ugly stain on our nation.

An attorney for Rodney King, John Burris, made an excellent point which I found to be true in my NYPD career.

With aggressive, special crime-fighting units like Scorpion, the numbers game tends to lead these cops to be overly aggressive and treat everyone, especially young Black men, as potential arrests.

This often means that they see a minor offense as a chance to get another “bad guy” into handcuffs and get one more arrest number. And God help a young man for defying or challenging the aggressive officers, or for even complaining about excessive force, as Tyre Nichols did.

Why haven’t we heard criticism of Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis? This Scorpion unit was one of the units that she and other Memphis police supervisors praised and touted as an excellent crime-fighting unit.

Davis has run this police department for 20 months, so she must have known about criticism of some officers in Scorpion, but apparently nothing was done to rein in their excessive force. The top boss has to take some responsibility and pay a price for irresponsible leadership if violent killings by police officers cannot be reduced or eliminated.

LaSalle deserves to be considered

In his essay “Progressives erred on chief judge pick” Opinion, Jan. 31], Sol Wachtler, former chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, clearly laid out the importance of keeping partisan political ideology out of the selection process for the court’s judges.

Forty years ago, I served as a law clerk to Matthew J. Jasen, then a senior associate judge, a Democrat from Buffalo.

The judges, including Wachtler, applied the law, not partisan political ideology, when deciding cases.

Justice Hector LaSalle, who would be expected to do the same, must have his nomination at least considered by the full State Senate. The integrity of the judicial selection process, as enshrined in the state Constitution, requires nothing less.

Ask Hochul to find open housing space

Richard Murdocco points out why Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive mandate is questionable [“Hochul must get local input on housing,” Opinion, Feb. 7]. I had not considered water supply and waste, but I have a more basic problem.

If within a mile of a Long Island Rail Road station there must be 50 new units per acre, where will they be built?

I used Google Maps to follow the LIRR Main Line from Westbury to Queens. I suggest Hochul do the same. Maybe she can find the open space needed.

Electric future gives residents a shock

I enjoyed the upbeat and optimistic op-ed by Eric Weltman and Fred Harrison “A solution to crippling energy bills,” Opinion, Feb. 6].

However, simply glancing over the issues and singing the praises of all-electric living will not make it come true, no matter how much you want it to be so. Heating your house with electricity can cost over three times the cost of natural gas and about 30% more for homes heated by oil.

Even a pro-electric utility commission, the Efficiency Maine Trust, while encouraging a shift away from fossil fuels, admits annual cost estimates for an electric-heated home to be over $6,000 while the same home heated by natural gas is only $2,100.

So anyone who champions the All-Electric Building Act should be honest about the cost. Far from being a win for our wallets, the 300% increase in energy cost for homes now heated by gas would dramatically cut into most family budgets. Not to mention that, for now, added use of electricity means electric utilities will burn more fossil fuel to supply the new electric demand.

What will electrification cost? Full disclosure: I’ve been a National Grid worker for 37 years. But my concern is as a homeowner, taxpayer and electric ratepayer.

We’re signing a blank check on electrification, replacing gas heating and hot water equipment starting in 2030. These increased costs include turbine leases, purchase power agreements, electric lines from the turbines, and battery storage.

Shoreham, a driver of our high rates at nearly $6 billion, will eventually pale compared to electrification costs. This doesn’t include upgrading your own home to electric heat pumps.

Would you buy a house or car not knowing the cost? I can’t imagine Long Island electric rates, which are already so high, won’t increase dramatically.

I’ve been told these electric-cost beliefs are fearmongering. Isn’t fearmongering being told you must do it regardless of cost?

I am incensed. I knew we were being gouged with oil and gas prices since the pandemic “Record-high oil profits,” LI Business, Feb. 1]. Now everyone knows the hundreds of billions of dollars made on the backs of Americans suffering from the rise in food and energy costs.

I have no words for the firms’ avarice. As a senior, I know this is no longer the America in which I grew up. Just who oversees these companies? It is outrageous.