RE JILL Porter's Jan. 19 column, "Suicide by cop: Victims' only crime is being sick":
I disagree. Of course, being sick isn't a crime, but it is a crime to advance toward police officers armed with a large knife, threatening their well-being.
If Ms. Porter wants to be a do-gooder, she should adopt these people, take them home and set a place for them at the table. When that individual grabs an ice pick and stabs her because the soup got cold, then maybe the police department can notify her family and inform them of her great efforts to help a sick person.
While she's at it, she should set a place for the toe-sucking individual who holds a gun to his female victim's head as he sexually assaults her. He too is sick and needs her help.
When you get down to it, all criminals are sick and need help. But when one is armed with a knife or a gun, and threatens the life of a police officer, that's not the time to pull out a textbook, diagnose his problem and offer treatment.
John Prendergast, Philadelphia
Charles Kelley, a mentally ill person, lunged at police with an eight-inch knife and failed to be stopped by two Tasers. Should an officer be stabbed or shot first by a person like this in order for him to be stopped?
The people in this city should be eternally grateful to every police officer for doing his best to clean up the streets of the self-destructing people running around in this city. Stop trying to find excuses for why the drug dealers, killers, the mentally ill, drug addicts, the gun-toters do what they do. Being fatherless or low-income is no excuse.
Instead, try standing behind the police for a change. They put their lives on the line for the ungrateful people in this city. How many people would stand still and let someone lunge at them with a knife or point a gun at them?
None! So stop criticizing the police. They're doing their job.
I am the proud mother of a Philadelphia police officer.
Diane Amoratis
Philadelphia
