Chief of Police for Chattanooga, Det. Kenneth Freeman, Judge Kevin Wilson, Chattanooga Police Internal Affairs:

I recently read about the police force's common practice in Chattanooga, of body slamming elderly persons in Wal-Mart. As I have an elderly parent who is known to frequent Wal-Mart, I have made the decision not to visit or live in your "fine" city or even state. Who knows when you people might travel?

I could not find a website for your "fine" police force, so I do not know whether or not your motto is "to protect and serve." If it is, might I suggest that you change it to "knocking you down whenever we feel like it," as that seems far more appropriate?

Your lack of regard for the law, from members of the police force to the chief of police to the actual judiciary leaves one struggling for words to adequately express the disgust, the abhorrence, the loathing that decent people feel toward you. You are despicable. You are without honor. You are the lowest among the low.

I am copying your City Hall in the hopes that the mayor of your "fine" town will have the gumption to call an inquiry into these events and fire you all as you so richly deserve, or, barring that, begin impeachment proceedings. I am also copying your local newspaper and requesting that this open letter be published to remind the citizens that mayors, chiefs of police, and judges are all elected officials. These people can and should be removed from office just as soon as a special election committee can be convened.

That this type of behavior has been tacitly approved for quite some type is apparent, but the citizens of Chattanooga do not have to live with corruption any more.

Sharon Hawkins
Ft. Worth, Tex.

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First off,

The police department has a website.

Second,

He did not shove the greeter to the ground, he turned around pushing the greeter off of him. Who had no right in grabbing him. Greeters cannot put their hands on anyone. And, if someone who didn't announce who they were started grabbing your arm and pulling you back, are you going to ask questions and risk being killed?

Eighty-year-old men carry guns and knives too, and kill people. Sorry, but I don't care of your age, if you grab me and I do not know who you are since you are coming up from behind me, I am going to push you off me too. You are better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6.

Ashley Johnson
Chattanooga

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Ms. Johnson,

How likely is it that an elderly greeter at Walmart was posing any type of physical threat to a detective who has been described as a very large man? If I'm walking out of Wal-mart and an old man grabs my arm from behind after asking to see my receipts I'm not going to be worried about defending my life.

Whether or not the officer was acting within his rights, his reaction, given the circumstances, seems to have been over the top. How many times is someone attacked from behind by an elderly person by having their arm touched?

Now if someone comes up behind me and pushes me, or tries to put some type of hold on me I would probably defend myself. However, if the detective simply had his arm touched, turned around and faced the man(which he would have had to in order to push him right?), saw he was an employee of Walmart, and almost certainly an older gentleman who posed no physical threat, and then pushed him hard enough to fall down, that seems extreme doesn't it?

Do you really believe the gentleman was "pulling the officer back"? And if so, he was obviously not trying to threaten the officers life, right? I understand the concept of self-defense, but this type of over-reactive behavior is dangerous, and more often than not leads to more problems than solutions.

Tyler Fordice
tfordice@live.com