POLICE ABUSE AND AUTHORITY

Thoughtful and worrisome words by Walter Prince (Commentary, March 2) about
the several options available to L.A. as the city faces the upcoming
Rampart litigation. [L.A. should] end its own version of the failed and
hideously expensive war on drugs. The city has no obligation to enforce
federal laws.

The war on drugs is one of the root causes of the runaway scandal; for
another, consider racism. The O.J. Simpson jury tried to tell L.A. that it
had a problem but nobody listened. But then so did the Kerner Commission,
circa the late 1960s.

GERALD M. SUTLIFF

Emeryville, Calif.