Make law enforcement subject to our laws

If any common citizen would shoot another person who was wobbling, staggering, driving away, running away or reaching for a billfold or in his office talking on the phone (like Eric Shaw, Iowa City case) or didn't follow orders or drove his car at the citizen, I would bet the common citizen would be charged, convicted and imprisoned.

Law enforcement personnel shoot citizens for trivial reasons, which in my book are not justified, and any common citizens doing the same would be convicted of murder or manslaughter.

That worn-out excuse about there being threats to officers is overblown. Most on-job fatalities for law enforcement personnel are from traffic crashes, not getting shot or knifed by citizens. In many cases, a warning shot into the ground would make an aggressive citizen stop.

Someone tell us whatever became of equal justice under the law we are supposed to have? Our elected lawmakers keep giving law enforcement personnel more and more favored status in the laws, until common citizens are like trash with few or no rights by comparison.

Wasn't it like that in the old Soviet Union or in communist China?

I'll be accused of being anti-police but not pro-equal rights or equal justice under the laws and in our courts.

Herman Lenz

Sumner