Red light camera pose driving risk
One important thing Bill Torpy failed to mention in his assessment of red light cameras is the psyche of the driver as they approach these traps: You’re driving along at the speed limit (usually with someone right on your tail), you see the “Photo Enforced” sign, and you pray the light won’t turn yellow; because if it does, you’re better off hitting the accelerator to beat the ticket, than slamming on the brakes to get hit from behind.
And when you get through the yellow, there’s often a line of stopped cars in traffic ahead that you have to avoid hitting. I am as safe a driver as they come, with no accidents and only one speeding ticket in the last 20 years, but these red light cameras actually make me compromise safety for fear of an exorbitantly hefty ticket.
KIRK SMITH, ROSWELL
Stupid movie put us at risk — for what?
We are missing the point with Sony’s comedy movie which culminates in the assassination of the North Korean leader Kim John-Un. If it was a serious movie about the significant threat of North Korea with its ever-developing nuclear program, I would be totally supportive of showing the movie whatever the consequences. But no; we have a stupid movie that makes questionable fun of a sovereign country’s leader who, however reprehensible, is still that nation’s leader. We should always ask, “How would we react if North Korea or any any other country showed the assassination of our president in a movie?” We should be protective of the First Amendment, but common sense needs to prevail, and we should not support a stupid movie story line that put our companies and individual citizens in jeopardy.
IAN SHAW, CUMMING
Rift opens between NY police, mayor
Regarding “2 New York officers slain in car in ambush” (News, Dec. 21), how can you cover the senseless murders of the two New York police officers without mentioning the police turning their back on the mayor as he came to the hospital to pay respects? Or that the union has asked him not to attend their funerals? Solid journalism would find it impossible not to touch on the connection between the mayor and his lack of support for the New York Police Department after the Eric Garner “I can’t breathe” death.
SCOTT ELMORE, DUNWOODY
