Civilian privilege
I don’t think that the members of the Civilian Complaint Review Board should be so quick to judge Officer Derek Bernard (“CCRB calls for cop’s job,” Dec. 3).
After all, Bernard was dealing with a violently mentally ill man who was wielding a knife.
Unlike Bernard, the members of the CCRB don’t have to endanger their lives every day.
They all get to pass judgment from the safety of their air-conditioned offices.
Therefore, they don’t have any way of knowing what causes terrible tragedies like the unintentional deaths of mentally ill people like Raul de la Cruz.
John Francis Fox,
Queens
On the mountain
Jack Fowler rightly issues a clarion call to “Make America’s Heritage Great Again” (Dec. 3).
In so doing he invokes Sabin Howard for his sculptures and other fine contributions toward memorializing portions of our country’s history.
While doing justice to Howard, Fowler mentions Mount Rushmore only in passing.
Gutzon Borglum, its creator, deserves more attention.
He toiled for over 14 years, even using explosives to overcome the difficulties of carving granite while fighting the weather.
He overcame the difficulties to create the true-to-life images we see on Mount Rushmore today.
Bob Heier,
Estero, Fla.
RIP Coach Lou
Coach Lou Carnesecca was indeed a living legend (“Goodbye Lou,” Dec. 1).
His dedication to coaching at St. John’s University was absolutely wonderful.
He devoted his entire life to mentoring players and was a true inspiration to the many hundreds of players he coached in his long and distinguished career.
We’ve lost a wonderful human being who always treated everyone with the utmost courtesy, respect and professionalism.
John Amato,
Fresh Meadows
Pay street docs
FDNY’s Emergency Medical Specialists, so-called “Street Doctors,” put their safety on the line every day treating the city’s critically sick and injured, yet we are denied fair treatment and compensation (“Underpaying city medics,” Nov. 30).
Three years ago, Mayor Adams pledged to establish pay parity for EMS members commensurate with peer frontline first responders.
We are still waiting.
Earlier this year, the city mandated a $19.56 per hour minimum wage for food-delivery workers, yet our highly trained EMTs must exist on less, with a starting wage of $18.94 per hour.
That is embarrassing.
Today, EMS responds to half a million more medical emergencies annually than two decades ago.
Staffing and resources have been stagnant.
Turnover is massive, with 50% quitting within their first five years.
The mayor and city’s denial of a wage increase hurts the public we are sworn to protect.
Oren Barzilay, President, FDNY EMS Local 2507,
Whitestone
Manchin mischief
Sen. Joe Manchin says President Biden should pardon President-elect Trump (“Sen. Joe Manchin calls on Biden to pardon Trump,” Dec. 2).
I really don’t like the senator from West Virginia.
He sold his key vote for the Inflation Reduction Act in exchange for a pipeline in his home state.
The IRA was one of the largest federal expenditures ever, and did nothing to reduce inflation.
Manchin was not elected to “make deals” and the Senate itself was not supposed to “buy votes” like that.
His words are worthless.
David F. Lipton,
Toms River, NJ
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