Professional courtesy refers to treating your colleagues courteously and with respect. Many police officers explain professional courtesy as looking the other way when a fellow officer is caught breaking the law.
The act of looking the other way is by itself a crime. Remember, a crime is an illegal act or omission.
On Nov. 12, 2022, a police chief flashed her badge at a county deputy and asked to be let go from a traffic stop. She later had to resign from the police force, and we have not heard what happened to the deputy who did not give her a ticket. Riding a golf cart on a public road without a license plate is a traffic violation and omitting to give a ticket to a traffic rule violator is a violation by itself (abuse of discretion); hence, both the police chief and the deputy should be punished.
I am not saying that police officers should write every citizen or other police officer who violates a traffic rule a ticket. Police officers should use their discretion and treat fellow officers/citizens in a manner that would withstand public scrutiny if the facts were out to be judged or if the video happened to be made public, as in the above case.
For “professional courtesy” to be granted, two things have to be present, and those are professional and courteous behaviors. Our take-home questions are: is policing a profession and do officers behave professionally?
Noel Otu
Brownsville
Get rid
of guns
It used to be that you weren’t safe in the movie theater, schools, Walmart, Luby’s, a mall, a workplace or even a church. Now it’s even evolved so that you can’t ring a doorbell. Your basketball can’t bounce into someone yard. You can’t take the wrong turn and try to turn around, because somebody might kill you.
What the heck is going on? If guns don’t kill people, then let’s get rid of people! And the people we should get rid of are all these politicians who are ignoring all these shootings. A bunch of greedy people taking millions of NRA dollars to enrich their campaigns.
These greedy politicians are only worried about being reelected, and do not care about human life. They care more about guns’ life. They hide behind the 2nd Amendment to justify not voting against powerful military-grade machine guns that tear bodies apart. If many of you could only see autopsy pictures of the kids who were shot in Uvalde, I think you would change your mind and I think if you had an AR-type rifle, you would probably saw it in half.
We need to pull these guns off the streets and out of the hands of crazy people or criminals. Yes, some will slip through, but there will be consequences for the owners who let these guns out of their grasp and not have them secured properly.
I wonder: In the next mass shooting, will you or I be next to die? Is one of our family members in real danger? Or even our grandkids? This applies to every one of us, no matter who you are; you are not excused. Are you willing to attend these kinds of funerals? Think about it!
Rick Ruenes
Brownsville
LETTERS — Limit letters to 300 words; all letters are subject to editing. Mail: P.O. Box 3267, McAllen, TX78502-3267; Email: [email protected]
