NY redistricting and NYPD cops shot

Dems try to level the playing field

I admit that the boundaries of the proposed 3rd Congressional District are bizarre, and if we lived in ordinary times, I would be as critical as Newsday’s editorial board of the Democrats’ gerrymandering ["Dems do dirty district dance," Editorial, Feb. 1].

However, these are not ordinary times. The reality is that the Republican Party has been taken over by extremists who disregard facts, science and the rule of law. We are in the middle of an ongoing whittling away of any semblance of fairness or civility without which democracy cannot survive. This is a slow-moving coup.

It is past time that the media acknowledge this. We have a congressman on Long Island who does not categorically state that the election was fair and that former President Donald Trump lost fairly. Although Newsday did ask Rep. Lee Zeldin of Shirley about this, he provided a meaningless reply ["Zeldin, Suozzi differ on electoral votes’ validity," News, Jan. 7]. Newsday should press Zeldin to give a straightforward answer.

In this light, the Democrats’ behavior looks more like a desperate attempt to level the playing field.

— John McDonagh, Huntington

Your editorial on the current redistricting fiasco points out what happens when you put the fox in charge of the henhouse. The results are not only absurd but probably don’t represent the will of the people.

NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice has put together map-drawing criteria that an independent commission could follow. This would go a long way to eliminate much of the geographic lunacy we are witnessing. One of the main points is that "districts should be geographically contiguous." They also aver that precincts should not be broken up.

The revised version of the 3rd Congressional District, which ensures that the flounder in Long Island Sound have representation, would not be possible if these guidelines were followed.

A truly independent commission following logical, not political guidelines, is absolutely necessary and should be reestablished to stop the current madness in Albany.

— Arthur M. Shatz, Astoria

Up until the 1962 reapportionment, congressional boundaries in New York City and Long Island seldom crossed borough or county lines. It can be traced to the last Queens Republican congressman, Seymour Halpern. After the 1972 reapportionment, he declined to run against Democrat Lester Wolff of Great Neck, when both districts were merged into one Queens-Nassau district. Wolff defeated long-term Republican Congressman Steven Derounian in 1964 on the coattails of President Lyndon Johnson.

In 1982, the GOP’s John LeBoutellier recaptured this seat for one term. The district has been gerrymandered several more times. Boundaries were extended west to Queens and east into Suffolk County.

Adding the Bronx and Westchester under the latest reapportionment represents the worst in gerrymandering.

It illustrates the pitfalls of reapportionment, when a veto-proof party controls both the State Assembly and Senate.

— Larry Penner, Great Neck

Cops’ deaths should ignite movement

The photos of the legions of police officers and civilians who stood on Fifth Avenue outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral reminded me of a similar event ["This officer is remarkable," News, Feb. 2].

In 1971, as a young sergeant in the Rockville Centre Police Department, I was one of a contingent of local officers who had come to honor and pay our respects to NYPD Officer Waverly Jones, who along with Officer Joseph Piagentini, had been shot and killed in the same Harlem precinct as Officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora.

Not since that day, over five decades ago, have I witnessed the coming together of the law enforcement and civilian communities in such large numbers.

Although the circumstances of these killings are not the same, similarities are inescapable. Two young officers just doing their jobs in the same precinct were killed by hardened criminals with illegal guns.

The outpouring of support from law enforcement officers and civilians who attend these funerals hopefully will ignite a movement that will reject the ideology that has led to lack of respect and widespread lawlessness for those who protect us.

We cannot allow ourselves to be controlled by a small minority of misguided individuals.

— Alfred Shull, Rockville Centre

The writer retired as commissioner of the Rockville Centre Police Department.

I just watched the funeral for another New York Police Department officer. I have three words to help halt these senseless killings and crime in all communities: stop and frisk. What are these lives and the future of New York worth? Put it up as a referendum on the November ballots.

— James Moore, Wantagh