Letters to the editor

I AM WRITING in response to the "Trapdoor Peril" article in the Friday's Daily News. The article needlessly attempts to alarm the public and contains factual inaccuracies regarding the safety of the trap doors on Regional Rail train cars. Commuter train service has historically been one of the safest modes of transportation, and the utilization of these traps has been in existence for decades.

These doors are used by virtually every passenger railroad on the East Coast, and neither SEPTA not the Federal Railroad Administration would allow these doors if they were unsafe.

While no injury is acceptable, there is no indication that the doors operate in a manner other than the manner in which they were designed. The trapdoors are continually kept in full compliance and are inspected daily as required by the FRA.

Any suggestion that SEPTA would put financial considerations before safety concerns is outrageous and irresponsible - and is not supported buy our safety record.

SEPTA will fully respond to the underlying allegations in court.

Joseph M. Casey

General manager, SEPTA

Why a cop was killed

Well, another police officer was killed in Philadelphia, and I continue to hear the same old excuse by Mayor Nutter, the media and the community that firearms are ravaging our city. The real killer of Officer Walker wasn't the firearm the killer used, but recidivism, coupled with a social-justice agenda and judicial apathy toward crime.

Rafael Jones killed Officer Walker that morning, police say, but other people share some of the blame for that senseless murder. Jones had a history and pattern of violence. In 2007, he was arrested for aggravated assault with a firearm and he was allowed to walk the streets.

In 2008 he was charged and convicted of numerous firearm violations. For that conviction he received a laughable two to four years in prison, way less time than what a felony of that magnitude deserves, and three years' probation.

In February, he was arrested for armed robbery with a firearm, a first-degree crime, with sentences up to 20 years in prison. He also violated his probation, but was allowed back on the streets because some judge made the decision that he wasn't a danger to society and could be self-monitored. Then while still walking the streets of Philadelphia, police say, he killed Officer Walker during an attempted armed robbery.

While Jones is ultimately responsible, he was aided and abetted by at least two judges and the District Attorney's Office, which withdrew the armed-robbery charges that would have kept him in jail for more than 20 years.

It is well-known in Philadelphia legal circles that armed-robbery convictions allow criminals to serve sentences way under what the guidelines recommend, based on some social-justice agenda, like prisons are overcrowded and that too many black males are incarcerated.

Armed robbery is a very serious crime, it's a gateway crime to homicide, and as long as our city's leaders, judges and the District Attorney's Office treat the crime as an everyday occurrence and allow short sentences for convictions, the recidivists will be out of jail, roaming our streets and taking the lives of fine men like Officer Walker.

Tom Sexton

Philadelphia

Wilt's accomplishments

Re: Wilt Chamberlain's 76th birthday.

My father was the late Vince Miller, who was the head basketball coach at Frankford High School, worked with the 76ers as their head scout and statistician, played with Wilt at Overbrook High and was his best friend. Not only am I familiar with basketball as a coach's daughter, but I am also a goddaughter of Chamberlain and a member of the Wilt Chamberlain Memorial Fund Scholarship Committee.

Obviously the relationships I had with both my father and my godfather make me sensitive to your comments about the number of women Wilt "bedded" during his lifetime (High and Inside, Aug. 22). Considering the effect Wilt made not only in the sport of basketball but on the city of Philadelphia, it seems that on his birthday you could have reflected on his accomplishments in sports and with the community instead of his personal life. But no, instead you decided to mention one part of a book used as promotion that was published in 1991.

In this day and time when public figures are not the role models we would like them to be, I would greatly suggest you write the positives that our honored Philadelphia heroes have accomplished instead of writing recycled stories from 21 years ago.

Gloria Miller

Pride & understanding

Re: "Penn State multitasking" (Aug. 23).

Give it a rest, please! There is nothing wrong with being Penn State proud. I am a proud Penn State alumnus and supporter of the university. Proud Penn Staters don't care that you don't care about this great institution, its students and alumni, and its millions of supporters. Verbally espousing one's Penn State pride does not mean that one is insensitive toward Sandusky's victims or that one is being defensive. Believe it or not, one can support the university and support victims of child abuse and rape. It is not a choice of "either/or." We truly do understand there are "real victims in this mess."

The Penn State community is not going to roll over and die. It is not going to shut up and disappear. Go Blue and White!

Stanley Thompson

Philadelphia