Don’t let police cover up Stamp’s death

Please do not allow the Norman Stamp cover-up to go unchallenged. The hundreds of fellow officers who knew Norman know Baltimore City’s stories are fabricated to save face and that it’s easier to smear the name of a dead officer who can’t tell his side of the story than to admit an officer jumped the gun and lied to cover up his mistake.

First, how can you wear brass knuckles, which you wear on your right hand if right-handed and which tie four fingers together, and unholster and draw a firearm? Impossible. Norman carried brass knuckles in his vest pocket, and they fell out after he was Tased and fell headfirst down the back steps of Haven Place.

If he attempted to draw his gun, it would have only been because he wasn’t aware he was Tased by a fellow officer, meaning the officer didn’t identify himself properly. Witness accounts say that after Stamp tumbled down the steps, his vest was pulled up to make his side holster visible, someone yelled “gun,” and Officer John Torres panicked and started shooting.

If Stamp knew there was an officer behind the rear door, the first thing he would have done was say, “I’m a cop!” and pull out his badge. He never would have pulled out a gun. He would have said something to the effect of, “Let me break this fight up, I know some of these guys and they’ll listen to me.” It would have been over in seconds.

I’ve been there and seen that happen many times over in the course of my 30-plus-year professional and personal relationship with Norman. Everyone knows that. Your investigative resources are very much needed and appreciated to help clear the good name of a lifetime dedicated police officer. He deserves this.

Frederick “Ricko” Mueller Jr.

Port Deposit

Police can kill with impunity

It was only a matter of time before the police killed one of their own. In New York’s Sean Bell case, the police “thought” he had a gun. In Maryland an officer shoots a man in the back outside a supermarket because he thought he was in danger. (Oh yeah, he had drugs on him, a good reason to kill him.)

Now one of their own, Norman Stamp, gets killed outside a strip club by a police officer, and everyone is outraged? In this case the deceased did have a gun. But did he actually pull it out, as the police claim? I’m sure any evidence that contradicts the police story of this shooting will be “lost.” It really doesn’t matter, though. Nowadays an officer can kill with impunity as long as he thinks he’s in danger.

Charlie Liccardello

Westminster

Army athletes should pay their own way

I would like to comment on the April 30 article “Army memo lets athletes play pro sports.” I am happy for the young players and the opportunity they have. However, they should be compelled to pay back the U.S. government the cost of their tuition to West Point. After all, they will be making the big bucks. If this does not happen, it is a slap in the face for anyone serving his or her country.

Phil Oliver

Glen Burnie

Grammar foreign to most Americans

In regard to the May 1 article “DUIs, distractions big problem on Maryland roads, police say,” which contained the phrase “having drank and drove.” If American citizens were capable of speaking and writing English, I could see the call for a mandated national language.

As an ex-teacher of English, though, I can tell you that most students actively resist learning it, and this forces the curriculum, in the hopes of supplying American businesses with competent workers, to repeat and repeat things already taught. This incessant repetition serves to bore those students actually attempting to learn and effectively caps their level of learning. And it simply bounces off the majority of public school students.

Cecily Wood

Ellicott City