I can’t begin to count how many times I have started a letter to
the editor and never finished it
– fear maybe? Not anymore. Our family has been through enough to
last a lifetime.
I can’t begin to count how many times I have started a letter to the editor and never finished it – fear maybe? Not anymore. Our family has been through enough to last a lifetime. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about how our police and Sheriff’s Departments are so untrained on how to deal with certain situations.
Three years ago, my grandson was arrested for a murder he did not commit. He sat in jail 20 days with only one hour a day out of his cell to call his wife and very little else. Guilty until proven innocent. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
After he went to court, he was released and a $10,000 debt (which my daughter and son-in-law are still paying on). My grandson and his wife had to move out of town because of all the threats on family members’ lives. We rarely see them. After all that, Bill Pierpoint, who was then the chief of police, stated on Channel 8 news that apologies to our family were not in order.
Then last month we had another incident. This time Sheriff’s and HPD. A deputy stopped a vehicle near our house. The person in the vehicle ran through our backyard and the deputies pushed open the door and ran through our house guns pulled. They said the suspect ran through our home. No one entered the house except them. For one vehicle, one suspect there were nine sheriff’s cars, one HPD car and one CHP car.
Of course, I was awakened from a deep sleep because of all the yelling and running through our backyard. My 3-year-old granddaughter was scared to death seeing them running through with guns. We also asked my 20-year-old grandson to go out to the car and get a badge number. He was stopped by a member of the HPD. He asked for an ID, which he ran for warrants – none. All the time he had him pinned against the police car, arm behind his back telling him not to resist. The officer bruised his upper arm. It was forceful enough to last a week black and blue.
After all that, he expected us to bow down and not be upset because they are officers of the law. Well, I did yell at them because I was so angry that they wanted me to respect them. Then they should have respected my home also. Did they?
Then I think about what happened to the Lujan family. Did they think that was OK, too?
“We are just doing our job.” To serve and protect. I don’t think so!
Dorothy Lopez,
Hollister
