Beware of speed traps and other letters to the editors

Beware of speed traps

It was no surprise when Democrat Mayor Andy Berke tapped an officer from liberal stronghold Austin, Texas, to be Chattanooga's next police chief. I was, however, taken back when I read in the TFP that he lists among his signature achievements increasing traffic citations by over 30 percent and setting up stings to catch law abiding drivers who get within three feet of the many bikers that fill our streets, many simply afraid of veering into the opposing lane of traffic and getting killed. Living on Signal Mountain, I know something about police lying in wait to catch people driving too fast on their way to work or church, and I don't think the good citizens of Chattanooga are ready for the nanny-state policing that the folks in Austin craved. I urge City Council to look long and hard at his candidate, and not to be taken by slick marketing and "flair." Chattanooga's main crime problems are not speeding and jaywalking, and those problems will take a lot more to solve than learning a few words of a foreign tongue.

STEVE PETARRA, Signal Mountain


Corker policies taken to task

Bob Corker has lost touch with the people of Tennessee. He has taken up with the radical Islamists in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and he has even assisted in arming the radicals in Turkey, the same radical Islam terrorists who have captured 1,500 Christian churches. The Christians in Syria have had their wives and daughters raped, men have been killed because they worship God and not Mohammad, and families have been forced out of their homes. Our senator supports these people with arms. This month, Corker voted against a resolution that would have recognized the killing of 1.5 million Christian Greeks and Armenians in the 1915 genocide that happened due to Turkey's radical Islamic beliefs. He did this because he does not have a backbone to stand up to injustice. I asked for five minutes of his time and his staff told me he didn't have that kind of time, but he has plenty of time to travel to over 60 countries, all on taxpayer money, to meet with bloody Islamic radicals. It is time for the people of Tennessee to straighten this man out and remind him he is in office for us.

BARRY BARSOUMIAN, Harrison


Koches serve their own interests

Kathleen Parker's article on the Koches was absolute nonsense. Go online and you will find that the Koches' industries have paid millions of dollars in fines for breaking environmental regulations. My impression of the Koches is they wouldn't care if you ate and drank sewage or breathed pure soot as long as they made a profit. Don't believe for a moment that they spend millions of dollars for political action and changing regulations for the public good. The breakers of regulations wanting to change the regulations isn't a novel idea either. Ask the people in the city of West, Texas, about regulations or the people in Tennessee and North Carolina about coal ash. Surely the public good was not at the head of the Koches' list when funding the fight against the unionization of VW. Demonizing the Koches, no. Telling the awful truth, yes. And how gullible do you have to be to believe the Heritage Foundation that Crossroads GPS is a 501(c)4. Phony IRS scandals -- Lois Lerner was right.

DAVID BEAN, Chatsworth, Ga.


What about the unborn?

Once again the tediously predictable Mr. Bennett misses the mark with his recent cartoon, presumably inspired by convicted murderer Clayton Lockett's recent error-filled execution. The correct translation of Exodus 20:13 is "You shall not murder," a commandment Mr. Lockett broke most heinously by beating, shooting twice and then burying alive his victim, Stephanie Neiman. I urge Mr. Bennett to use his considerable cartooning skills to lament instead the systematic and ongoing murder of some 53 million (and counting) unborn human beings since the Supreme Court's abominable Roe vs. Wade ruling.

G. PATRICK BRYANT

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