Drone drama
Leave it to a senseless state senator, in this case Jessica Ramos, to try to shoot down a constructive idea to help reduce serious crime in the Big Apple (“Rise of robocop: Eric eyeing NYPD drones,” March 27).
If the city eventually does purchase crime-fighting drones at the urging of Mayor Adams, it will be a huge benefit to both police and civilians. The only thing that is “reprehensible,” as Ramos puts it, is her thoughtless, knee-jerk reaction.
Charles Winokoor
Fall River, Mass.
Foster helpers
Naomi Schaefer Riley gets one thing right in her opinion piece: The foster system causes trauma in children, and a dysfunctional court exacerbates that harm (“No Justice,” PostScript, March 27).
The rest of her opinion, however, is a swing and a miss. Riley misleads by claiming that public defenders cause delays in family court proceedings. Studies show that multidisciplinary family defenders for parents, like Bronx Defenders, safely reduce time children spend in the foster system by nearly four months, translating into $40 million in annual savings.
The problem is not a short-staffed court, and no part of the system needs to grow. For too long, New York City’s response to family poverty has been surveillance and family separation, a devastation reserved almost exclusively for black and brown families.
Rather than pump billions into a broken system of contracted caretakers, New York City must provide financial and material resources to the parents who love their children.
Emma Ketteringham
Managing Director, Family Defense Practice, The Bronx Defenders,
The Bronx
Bring back NYC
“Lure ’Em Back” by Nicole Gelinas is spot on (PostOpinion, March 28).
I haven’t lived or worked in New York City for years, and recently when I went to an event in the city, the first thing unpleasantly jumping out is the amount of scaffolding and broken roads surrounded by cones.
It looked a bit like a city after a zombie apocalypse. Don’t even get me started on the piles of garbage.
It is really unbelievable that a city commanding huge budgets can’t get its buildings and roads looking pristine. Maybe get the army of bureaucratic pencil-pushers away from the their comfortable desks to clean it up.
Igor Gubenko
Livingston, NJ
Parole pass
Gov. Gavin Newsom got it right by denying parole to Leslie Van Houten, the Charles Manson follower who was involved in the murder of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca (“California governor rejects parole for Manson follower,” March 30).
The heinous manner in which the murders were carried out, without any motives other than blood lust, should mandate no parole — ever.
While the murderess takes courses and receives self-improvement therapy in prison, the children and grandchildren of the victims will forever be haunted by the fate of their loved ones. Van Houten should spend the rest of her life in prison. Parole is an affront to the memory of the victims.
Mel Young
Boca Raton, Fla.
COVID vax heroes
New Yorkers and Americans who took the COVID vaccines and collectively beat this deadly disease to the edge of oblivion are true heroes (“Stars and gripes,” March 25).
They helped save lives. It is discouraging to hear the protests of those unvaccinated, as they have always been part of the problem, not the solution.
Donathan Salkaln
Chelsea
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