As a child and young man, I was taught police were our friends and that we can depend on them in a time of trouble. Everyone looked up to and respected them.

It seems like I can’t pick up a paper or turn on the TV without hearing about another bad police officer. In Tampa, Fla., four deputies were suspended for dumping a quadriplegic out of his wheelchair; in Elkert, Ind., police took pictures of a woman after they pulled up her skirt. In Ohio, an officer is charged with murder; in New York, two cops were hit men for the mob. The police seem to be drunk with power. In Maine, a Bangor officer allegedly slashed tires. And the most egregious case was the shooting of an 18-year-old in Waldoboro. That kid was handed the death penalty for a traffic ticket. Why was it necessary to chase him into the woods? The police had his car and companion, so it would have been easy to track him down and arrest him. The shooting was bad enough, but then to compound this tragedy the Attorney General excuses this unnecessary shooting.

I have a two-year degree in law enforcement and wanted to be a police officer. By the time I graduated, I had changed my mind. It seems that anyone wanting to be a police officer was either bullied as a child or was a bully.

Gregory Campbell

Eddington