DENVER HAD TO TAKE POLICE OFFICER BACK

Putting Denver police officer Joseph Bini back on duty had to be done, and
here is why. If they fired him, he would take the city to court to show
cause. In court it would come out that there were problems with his case
that go all the way to the top.

What about Rockies player Mike Lansing who was riding along with the SWAT
team that mistakenly raided the wrong house (because Bini gave them the
wrong address), killing Ismael Mena? What happened to the door Mena was
supposed to be hiding behind, while at the same time he was aiming a gun?
Where are the missing bullets from the wall? Were there really bullet holes
in the floor?

No, the best way to keep the truth from being known is to pay off the Mena
family (which the city lucked out on; had Mena lived, he may have gotten
$1.2 million), take Bini back, and take the heat that will come with this
until the situation blows over. And it will -- always has -- and nothing
changes.

T.F. Shirley, Denver

PLENTY OF BLAME TO SPREAD

Columnist Bill Johnson and a News editorial have made Denver police officer
Joseph Bini the scapegoat for the death of Ismael Mena. I'm not sure if all
this vitriol is justified. There seems to be a lot of blame to be spread
around.

No. 1 is that no-knock raids are a direct usurption of the Fourth
Amendment. There were numerous unchallenged agreements to conduct this
raid. There was no Neighborhood Watch-type program to alert the police of
drug activities. Ismael Mena was an illegal immigrant who escaped scrutiny
by INS after being contacted earlier by Denver police. And all of this was
initiated by the rights-thieving failure known as the "war on drugs."

Yes, Bini is responsible for a part of this tragic fiasco, but let's not
oversimplify the solution by attaching him with all the blame.

Richard Parks, Denver