American police

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32495, 4 January 1971, Page 8

American police

Sir, —I was distressed by Mr Phillips’s statement that United States police brutality is “a fact of life.” Being a recent graduate of Harvard (July, 1970), I find his statements extremely biased and misleading. He says that the justice of the courts is “often corrupt.” The courts’ decisions may not be popular with some groups; this certainly does not make them “corrupt.” Obviously, police “brutality” has taken place on rare occasions. However, Mr Phillips chooses to ignore that this has been generally occasioned by provocations, obscenities, and violence directed at police by student and minority groups. In fact, they have generally handled dangerous and violent confrontations with understanding and astounding forbearance. The “incidents” Mr Phillips describes seem so farfetched to this Bostonian as to be scarcely worthy of comment. While something approximating these incidents may have occurred, it seems inconceivable that the actions provoking the police were so benign and blameless as Mr Phillips suggests.—Yours, etc., C. DALE VERMILLION, M.D. Registrar, Urology, Christchurch Hospital. December 30, 1970.