Readers Write (Dec. 22): Search engines, disabilities, policing, medical marijuana, transit and parking, electric cars

As a practitioner of search-engine marketing,

I love seeing Google's annual compendium of top searches. Over the years, I've seen searches ranging from sweet to disturbing to poignant: cute photos of baby animals I didn't know existed, fetishes that made me want to bathe in Purell and pleas for medical breakthroughs.

Reading the list of the year's "trending donations" brought to mind a related project I did for a nonprofit that wanted to attract funders. When I saw all the interest in terms — also on Google's 2014 list — such as "donate blood," I thought, "Huzzah! My faith in humankind is restored!" (Until I dug deeper and realized that the searches were almost always followed by "for money." Then I had to reframe my statement to: "Drat, faith in humankind still shaky.")

The Dec. 15 article "Disability lawsuits are met by healthy skepticism" missed a very important perspective: that of disabled people in Minnesota. While we all want small businesses to thrive, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) also provides very important protections for disabled people that allow them to access the same services and public places as everyone else. Just because a business is small or doesn't have large profits does not excuse compliance.

My dad has multiple sclerosis. Every time we want to go out to dinner or travel or go shopping, we have to think about whether the business is compliant with the ADA. Do all doors have automatic door openers? Are there stairs inside the restaurant or hotel? Is there a ramp, and is it the correct angle? Does the "accessible room" actually have a roll-in shower and a wide-enough door? The article made it seem like a door threshold that is 1.5 inches too high is no big deal. I watch my dad navigate the world in a scooter, and I can tell you that it is a big deal. Such seemingly small details can make all the difference when it comes to access for disabled people.

I'm not condoning the lawyers' actions in these particular cases. However, the ADA is important legislation, and we must find a way to educate small and large business owners alike about compliance.

I agree with Christopher R. Guelcher that policing in a large city is a thankless and difficult job ("An officer's query: Which laws should we not enforce?" Dec. 18). There are truly bad people out there on the street who want to hurt police officers. There are politicians who don't support them and community groups that want to blame them. But to label every lawbreaker as a "bad guy" touches at the core of the policing problem in this country today. If someone is disobeying a law, any law, labeling them justifies treating them as less than human.

There are good cops out there who love their job and take it very seriously. They understand that there are varying degrees of bad, and that sometimes good people behave badly. The Minneapolis mayor and the head of the Police Department need to understand that until the "us vs. them" attitude is eradicated from the force, citizens are not going to trust their authority.

• • •

Guelcher is right about one thing: People hate the police. It's no mystery why. According to an Aug. 26 commentary in the New York Times by Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the School of Law at the University of California, Irvine, holding "police officers and the governments that employ them accountable" when officers unnecessarily kill or injure people is "often impossible." Many people don't want to reform a gang that terrorizes people with apparent impunity. They want it abolished.

• • •

Guelcher suggests that laws such as those regarding pursuits restrict the duty of officers. In my eyes, putting a human life in danger in order to catch a criminal is ridiculous. A study done from 1994 to 2002 by BMJ Publishing Group, based on data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, shows that around a third of people killed in police pursuits were from a third party — meaning that they were innocent civilians. The risk of pursuing a nonviolent criminal is too high. The job of the police is to serve the people, not to put their lives in danger.

Having just celebrated a year in Falcon Heights after a move from Fergus Falls, I was feeling pretty good about having figured out easy transportation with the No. 84 bus and the Green Line. But in the Dec. 16 "On the Beat" column, I discovered that when I parked my car in a lot along University Avenue to speed up a recent light-rail trip, I was a "sneaky" parker, a hide-and-ride guy. I had no idea how quickly and easily my reputation would be sullied by life in the city. Will the courteous drivers on the No. 84 bus somehow know of my shame and henceforth show me nothing but scorn? Horrors.

I'd disagree that "the simple fact is that electric vehicles are cheaper to own and run than those with an internal combustion engine" (Readers Write, Dec. 17). It may be true if you trade cars every four to five years, but if you keep your vehicle for seven to 10 years, the replacement batteries could far outweigh any savings from prior low maintenance costs. Case in point: A recent hybrid battery replacement in our eight-year old Honda is estimated to run between $2,500 and $3,200.

We don't really know what the "real" cost will be in battery disposal and replacement for electric cars, and may not have a good answer for the near future. In addition, an often overlooked fact in repairing gasoline/hybrid engines is that the electrical charge running through the engine may cause bolts holding major parts together to "fuse" to the engine block, causing difficulty in repair.

It's not that electric/hybrid cars are a problem, but the jury is still out as to their cost-effectiveness.