K-9 killer
Re “K-9 stabbed to death by gang members at Sussex prison, officials say” (April 3): It is my belief that if a police officer is killed in the line of duty, the punishment should be death.
It should not matter if the police officer is two- or four-legged. K-9 “officer” Rivan was performing his duty when he was viciously killed. Based on news reports, he died while protecting the life of a fellow officer and an inmate of the prison. Whoever killed Rivan, should be tried for first-degree murder, and if found guilty, that person or persons should be punished by death.
Sonja Wintermantel, Yorktown
___
Abortion
During slavery a woman’s body was the property of her owner. She was, without her consent, a breeder, required to supply more slaves to increase income for her owner and the state. Today Republican governors, and federal and state legislators want to again own a woman’s body. I do not believe, if one considers abortion murder, there is any time abortion could be legal after conception. That is the goal of Republicans even when it endangers the life of the mother or the fetus is not viable.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander. I challenge Republicans to legislate bans on all contraception, vasectomies and erectile dysfunction products for unmarried males. In order to use these products or get a vasectomy, it would require written consent from their wives. Adultery would again be punishable by jail time. Unmarried sex, regardless of age, would be illegal. Any male who impregnated a female other than his wife would be incarcerated for 18 years and his assets seized to support his offspring.
It would be equitable to control a man’s reproductive rights if we insist on restricting a woman’s rights. Limiting his ability to have sex outside of the marital bed would dramatically reduce the number of unwanted children, while increasing the prison population. That’s the cost of reproductive slavery.
Or, a woman’s reproductive health care can be her decision, not the government’s.
Pam Pouchot, Yorktown
___
Israel-Hamas war
After Hamas broke a long-standing ceasefire Oct. 7, killing, burning and seizing roughly 250 hostages in the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, Israel began ridding Gaza of this evil organization.
The Israel Defense Forces have been doing an exemplary job of rooting out Hamas terrorists while also working to protect civilians, despite Hamas allegedly embedding itself among the people in hospitals and homes, allegedly employing them as shields.
Israeli troops allegedly uncovered numerous weapons stored in a hospital and accused terrorists of taking refuge in it and firing from inside it. This would be in contravention to international law. Militant use of these types of places makes them legitimate targets, according to the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel adheres to international law; Hamas does not.
John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, states that Israel has gone “above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” according to Newsweek.
Much of the media quotes the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry’s casualty figures while some experts say the numbers do not add up.
Israel says it has killed more than 13,000 Hamas militants. Even using the Palestinians’ unreliable body counts, the ratio of Hamas fighter to civilian deaths is about 1-to-1.5. The U.N.’s own ratio for modern warfare is roughly 1-to-9, according to Newsweek, which makes Israel’s conduct a model to the world.
Dr. Sheldon Fineman, Virginia Beach