Letter to the editor

To the Editor:
A resident of Batesville, I think we have one of the top police departments in the state. Ninety-five percent are at top of their game.

Unfortunately the other five percent represents an officer who is not at the top of his game and throws around his authority.

An example was one evening about 9:30 p.m. during a quiet night when me and a cousin and he son-in-law were standing outside while three adults were sitting in a car in the parking lot listening to the radio.

The officers told the other people to go in their apartment then walked up to us shining a flashlight on the ground looking for drugs. All of us are older people who don’t like drug dealers. The officers knew we were not drug dealers as one of them grew up with us.

We were about to walk in the house as we were told because of a 9 p.m. curfew when one of the officers told me to take my hands out of my pockets. It was cool outside.

After I asked “Why I should do that,” the officer put a tazer right in my face.

By that time the others asked the officer, ”Why did he come up acting like that.”

I then asked for their badge numbers and then asked them to let me go to my car to write it down.

I was told that it was a danger to the officer for me to go to my car. The officer got mad and called in all three of our names to see if we had any old fines. We didn’t.

All of that was unnecessary. Common sense should have been used.

As for the drugs, I can’t tell anyone what to do, but I don’t sell drugs, I don’t smoke drugs. When an officer stops or approaches me, please don’t disrespect me like that.

Thanks,

Bobby “Six-9” Bradford