PUBLIC FORUM DIDN'T TAKE LONG.

Re ``LAPD chief lists goals'' (Oct. 29):

It didn't take long. Newly anointed Chief William Bratton gets a Los Angeles Police Department uniform and badge, then waffles on his open- mouthed promises about what he would do with such a small department in so large a city with so much crime and graffiti and so many gangs. Sounds like he now thinks he bit off far more than he can chew.

Unless the mayor and City Council come down from their highchairs, renege on conflicted portions of their childish acceptance of the federal consent decree, expand the LAPD by a few thousand officers and finally admit, even in secret, that the leadership style and law enforcement programs and policies of past LAPD chiefs, such as Daryl Gates and Edward Davis, were really well within the professional tenets of policing, Bratton will find it impossible to ``reform the LAPD,'' as he has promised in such a braggadocio style to do.

- Richard M. Holbrook

Retired LAPD lieutenant

Sylmar

Can't have both

Re ``LAPD chief lists goals'' (Oct. 29):

As a retired Los Angeles police officer, I had to smile when I heard Chief William Bratton tell the troops that the time for officers to drive around and wave to the citizens is gone. Time to hit the streets, talk to suspects.

My question is: Who is going to call off the dogs at Internal Affairs when all the personnel complaints roll in? You can't have your cake and eat it too, Chief.

- Craig Bushey

Sherman Oaks

Slow on the draw

Re ``L.A. crime wave'' (Oct. 29):

It's now the end of October. The FBI has finally issued a report on the 2001 crime figures. Let's see - the end of October: That's about 300 days since the year 2001 ended. In this day and age of computers, we once again have another example of a branch of the government exhibiting its advanced inefficiency.

- Bruce Feitelberg

Tarzana

Care-giving

Re ``Elderly care failing'' (Oct. 16):

I've been a certified nursing assistant for 20 years in nursing homes so I know the pressures of working in an understaffed environment. I feel guilty when I don't have time to give my residents showers or even to sit and talk with them. We never keep nurses for long. There's not enough money. The nursing home industry needs to attract more people to these jobs by providing decent wages. Our residents cling to us because we're the only family they have, but the high turnover of caregivers leaves them feeling insecure and sad.

It's only when our government demands that nursing homes spend our tax dollars on better staffing and on creating valuable jobs in giving care that our elderly will get the attention they need.

- Laverne Bowen

Los Angeles

Bathroom issues

Re ``Nightmare at school'' (Oct. 22):

It is extremely disturbing that children are allotted time to go to the bathroom or are given detention if they can't comply. No wonder our kids are plagued by all kinds of physical, emotional and psychological problems exacerbated by such decisions. Where is our educators' common sense - or education, for that matter? These children will have ``bathroom'' issues as adults or, worse, physical problems, such as infections due to ``holding it in,'' and be vulnerable for the rest of their lives.

- Dorothy Marie Vitale

Van Nuys

Championship act

Wow. Fantastic. As a team, the Anaheim Angels have won the World Series championship. Time will tell if they can act like champions. They have to learn to sneer rudely at their last opponent, speak crudely of them, prompt their fans to throw beer and cups at the other team's players and, oh - while they're at it - brag ad nauseam.

Troy Glaus, Tim Salmon, Garret Anderson, David Eckstein - for that matter, every player - must each learn to pat himself on his own back and become self-reverent. Can't you just see it? It's certainly a familiar scenario for the other local sport champions. On second thought, which team really has a lot to learn?

- Shirley Osborn

Los Angeles

I saw it

Re Louis Rosenberg's Oct. 29 Public Forum letter:

What these antiwar protesters don't understand is the devastating power of nuclear weapons and what Saddam Hussein could do if he developed them. I personally know the power of these weapons because when I was in the Marines back in the 1950s I got orders to go out to Bikini in the Marshall Islands where the Atomic Energy Commission was testing nuclear weapons, and, believe me, you don't want a guy like Hussein getting his hands on them.

I'm sure you have readers who were out there around the same time I was and know what I'm talking about.

- Scott G. Buchanan

Van Nuys

Rally was a joke

Last weekend's antiwar rally was a joke. The many speakers made one outrageous assertion after another, from claiming President George W. Bush wants to commit genocide against Muslims to the old standby that he wants to enrich his oil buddies. But what I found laughable was their insistence that their view is in the majority and that sooner or later, by their continued and determined opposition, they will be able to stop the war.

What they can't seem to grasp is that the modern American way of war calls for swift and decisive action with overwhelming force, using precision strikes, so as to win the war quickly with a minimum of civilian casualties - which doesn't lend itself well to growing a popular antiwar movement.

- Leonard C. Snebold

Simi Valley

Unjust war

For all the readers who are in favor of an invasion of Iraq, you should understand that the current war protesters want to prevent what happened with the Vietnam War. War protesters are not against American soldiers. They don't want to support an unjust war. America stands for democracy and its key element: freedom of expression. If you want to live in a country that is not critical of its commander in chief, you could go live in Iraq.

Central Intelligence Agency officials have said that Saddam Hussein is not an immediate threat to the United States. He has been contained for more than 10 years. North Korea is more of a threat, but we won't invade that country because it has no oil.

- John Wisdom Dancer

Canoga Park

Fixed target

Re ``CIA warning ignored'' (Opinion, Oct. 24):

What are President George W. Bush and his advisers thinking - that the last thing they need is to corner an angry, desperate tiger and then yank his tail? They are taking the easy path and going after a known, fixed target: Saddam Hussein. Meanwhile, the elusive, potentially more dangerous one, al-Qaida, is free to regroup and plan the next disaster.

- Susan Bell

Thousand Oaks

Not less important

On Oct. 28 my eyes were drawn to a French newspaper featuring the tragedy that occurred the previous weekend in Moscow. When I arrived home and picked up my copy of the Daily News to read the article, I was revolted to see that the results of the World Series dominated the front page while the Russian incident occupied a small spot in the bottom left hand corner.

If the same event had occurred in America, would that not have taken the bulk of the front page? Then why is it less important when Russians are the victims? True, they are not fellow Americans; they are, more importantly, fellow humans.

- Richard Perillo II

Chatsworth

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VALLEY SECESSION: WHAT'S THE TRUTH?