Readers Write for Monday, Aug. 24

These gang members are not poor immigrant boys taking a $15 item from a retailer; these are big-time criminals who stole big bucks, nice cars, jewelry and whatever else struck their fancy (Star Tribune, Aug. 21). They are even worse than the drug dealers they arrested, for these law enforcement officers betrayed their employers' and the public's trust for years. They aided and abetted theft by their fellow gang members, and, just as gangs do, now refuse to tell the truth about each other's crimes. So what else don't we know about their illegal creativity?

Justice needs to be served -- not suspensions or dismissals from their jobs, but long-term jail sentences. Strip them of their badges, issue them striped clothes that they so richly deserve and get them off the streets.

JUNIUS STENSETH, MINNEAPOLIS

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The irony of Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan's Aug. 21 letter committing to "protect with courage and serve with compassion" being published the exact same day as the front-page article "What gang cops did: It's a crime" cannot be ignored.

Chief Dolan takes credit in his letter for the reduction of liability payments for police misconduct during his tenure. Good for him. Now I would like him to comment on misconduct of the Metro Gang Strike Force. Is frisking people without warrant, seizing property without just cause and then stealing property for their own use serving with courage and compassion? I would call it abuse of power.

KAREN WATTERS, STILLWATER

What needs to be examined is what treatment people are receiving. We know that it takes more than medication to treat depression. Therapy, education, diet, exercise, work or volunteering, and the involvement of family and friends can all have a positive impact on treatment of depression.

National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) is pleased to see that depression is being treated just as other illnesses are and hopes that tracking outcomes will lead to a more expansive view of how to successfully treat it.

SUE ABDERHOLDEN, ST. PAUL;

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NAMI OF MINNESOTA

Thank you, Star Tribune, for keeping the story of Alex Merritt alive.

I agree with an earlier letter writer who observed that the school district got off way too easy by paying out a $25,000 settlement.

An aspect of this story that has not been discussed enough is the low expectations established by the district regarding teachers' attitudes toward students' perceived sexual orientations. The teachers involved are experienced hands who surely understood what the district's positions are on such issues. They apparently felt that such behavior on their part would not only be tolerated, but was acceptable.

In the whole scheme of things, the school district "leadership" doesn't have a clue what this is really all about, and that is the most tragic part of this sad episode.

ROBERT CHEPOLIS, EDEN PRAIRIE

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For all that went wrong in Anoka-Hennepin, thousands of things go right every school day.

MARK VERONEN, PONSFORD, MINN.

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As recently as a few months ago, I could not turn on the TV without having the president of Education Minnesota tell me that I needed to make school funding the state's top priority (give it more money). Now I open the newspapers and see that the Anoka-Hennepin School District has essentially condoned the deplorable actions by two of its teachers who verbally and publicly humiliated a student because they thought he was gay.

In nearly any other work environment, these two would have been fired. This is how my tax dollars are being spent? And Education Minnesota wants me to give it even more money? Unbelievable!

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, in an appearance on Sean Hannity's radio show, said, "That's why people need to continue to go to the town halls, continue to melt the phone lines of their liberal members of Congress, and let them know, 'Under no certain circumstances will I give the government control over my body and my health care decisions.'"

I'm so glad to see she's now pro-choice!