PUBLIC FORUM LAPD CONSENT DECREE.

I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you, says Bill Lan Lee of the Justice Department. No one believes that. But our city politicians pretend to. So, here's what responsible public officials would do now that they have admitted gross incompetence.

Chief Parks should resign. If the LAPD is mismanaged and officers are contemptuous of Constitutional rights he, as the boss, has failed in his job. Every member of the City Council who has been in office since the Christopher Commission issued its report should resign. They had ample opportunity to reform the LAPD, and obviously did not.

The City Attorney, Ken Hahn, should resign. He should have spent the last several years telling the mayor and the council that the LAPD was heading for legal catastrophe, but did not. Finally, we the citizens of LA should pay attention to whom we elect. Otherwise, we will be ruled by incompetents like these.

- Robert Harding

Northridge

Where's the tolerance?

Jackie Goldberg, in trying to prevent the Boy Scouts from using any city facilities, once again proves that liberals are truly hypocrites. Doesn't the liberal lexicon preach tolerance and nondiscrimination? So why is it that Goldberg thinks she can impose her personal viewpoints on others because she disagrees with them? Where is her tolerance?

Why can't she just accept the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court allows the Scouts to pick who they want to associate with and get on with her life? She and her friends need to stop the venomous hatred they spew while hiding behind their beliefs.

- K. Hunter

Santa Clarita 

Paying back

Re ``The Scouts' fate'' (Editorial, Nov. 3):

The Daily News is completely off base as to what the problem is. Yes, the Scouts won in the Supreme Court. Some are happy about that, some are not. There exists some requirements that governmental agencies cannot subsidize any private organization that discriminates on many levels, including sexual orientation. The issue is the free services that the Scouts have been given in the past. As a past Cub Scout, Boy Scout and Sea Scout, I enjoyed many of those activities.

With the masses of people who wholeheartedly support the Scouts, I would suggest the following: All of you should sit down and write a supportive check to the Scouts so that they may pay fair market value for those previously free services. Now the problem is solved. No more argument. Long live the Scouts.

- John Arason

Mission Hills

It's an outrage

If you were the fetus in your mother's womb, would you wholeheartedly want her to be pro-choice?

Who is not outraged by the notorious, inhuman Jewish Holocaust? How then can we condone the daily, thoughtless slaughter of 4,000 helpless fetuses by voting ``pro-choice''?

- Anne S. Lau

Granada Hills

This latest, unfair trial

I read with interest and sadness the articles and letters about how my husband should be put to death. It is no wonder to me that all over America the death penalty is being questioned.

My husband did not kill Officer Paul Verna. The killer is already on Death Row and his four confessions were not allowed into this latest, unfair trial. Some judges work for the prosecution and against the California Supreme Court's decision to give Kenneth Gay a fair trial.

It is so sad to see, read and hear the facts cut in half, as was done in the courtroom, and the evidence of innocence hidden. And keeping the evidence from these poor victims, Sandra Verna and her family.

And some in the media didn't even know that my husband is a light skinned black man, that there was in fact no robbery that day, and that Kenny had an incompetent lawyer throughout his original guilt and penalty trials.

So please folks - before you throw the switch - and cry out for ``justice,'' and ``closure,'' let's think about all those facts you haven't been allowed to hear, even by the judges. Don't think that there are not Superior Court judges who slant and bias a case - it is done all the time.

Had you been there to witness some 65 uniformed officers, and even Chief Parks with his wife, who came in as closing statements were being heard, and officers in and out every 10 minutes, would you not also be intimidated if you were the jury?

Please tell me, after all you have found out about Rampart, do you still think the police are all honest? And lastly, walk in the shoes of someone who is in the car with a killer, and then judge what you would have done.

- Janice L. Gay

San Quentin Village

Consequences

Re ``LAPD tactics draw fire,'' (Oct. 31):

I would like to know why almost every preschooler knows to not point a gun or any other sort of weapon at a police officer, especially as a joke, yet this actor thought it appropriate to do so. Instead of suing the police department, the family should be punishing themselves for never teaching their son the social rules and laws we have to follow in society.

As far as I am concerned, if you are stupid enough to point a realistic gun at an officer of the law, then you pay the price of that officer defending him or herself. People need to learn that when you break the law, and when you endanger another person, there are consequences.

- Tori Rogers

Agoura Hills

Should know better

What a tragic thing to have happen to a young man at the age of 39, who was doing well in his career and was at a party, does the wrong thing and gets shot for it. But, this young man, at the age of 39, should have been a lot smarter and known better. No one with an ounce of brains points a gun at anyone, even if it's a toy gun.

A police officer goes through a lot of training at the Police Academy and in the field. It's not a joke when you see a gun pointed at you - your common reaction, draw your service pistol and protect yourself. What it came down to was Anthony Dwain Lee was at a Halloween party. Dwain, seeing someone in a window, pointed his toy gun, which looked very real to Police Officer Terriel Hopper, who was there investigating a complaint with his partner.

The way I look at this shooting, if someone pointed a gun at me, I sure as hell would try and protect myself, like the police officer did.

- Benjamin R. Laufer

Sherman Oaks

The sky is falling

An asteroid might hit the Earth in the year 2030 with a force 100 times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Darn. I guess I won't buy that 30-year Treasury Bond after all.

- Louis Thompson

Woodland Hills

Foothill Transit's record

Kymberleigh Richards' ``Forget Valley transit zone and improve MTA,'' (Opinion, Oct. 13) contained some erroneous information about Foothill Transit's performance.

For the record, Foothill Transit's schedule adherence in December was actually 85 percent, not the far lower numbers that Richards quoted. Her statement regarding Foothill schedule adherence was related to a staff report that indicated that 60 percent of late Foothill trips (16 percent of total trips) were no more than five minutes behind schedule - not that 60 percent of Foothill routes were late. And while our performance compares favorably with many other bus systems in Los Angeles County, Foothill Transit has not been complacent and continues to closely monitor and improve its on-time performance.

By any measure, Foothill Transit has clearly delivered improved service to the San Gabriel Valley since we took over service from Southern California Rapid Transit District in 1988. Perhaps the most telling statistic is how residents have responded. Ridership has increased from 9.5 million to over 16 million people annually because of our emphasis on customer service, clean buses and affordable fares. After nearly 13 years, it's apparent the Foothill Transit ``experiment'' is working for the San Gabriel Valley.

- Julie M. Austin

Executive Director

Foothill Transit