Trust is earned, not learned

She belittles Corzo’s status as the first Latina supervisor, and appears to disapprove of her friendship with Shara Watkins, who is Black. Ms. Lempert’s complaint seems to be that she doesn’t like The Tone That Woman Is Using, and so she has leapt to the defense of the rest of the board members — every one of them a white male.

Ms. Lempert naively believes that minority children don’t trust law enforcement because of lack of exposure. Next time, I recommend Ms. Lempert spend 30 seconds becoming more educated about her beliefs before writing. In that time she could have found resources from the ACLU, NPR, the NEA, and the conservative Cato Institute all finding that putting police in schools leads to more arrests and worse outcomes for minority youth, and the criminalization of normal adolescent behavior by children who are Black and from various racial and ethnic backgrounds. If law enforcement wants children — or anyone — to trust them, they should be earning that trust through their actions on the job, evenhanded enforcement of the law, and by embracing transparency and accountability among their own number.

Ms. Lempert is right about one thing: Supervisor Corzo is not Carole Groom. She is her own person and brings much needed perspective. I applaud Supervisor Corzo’s willingness to speak out strongly and her refusal to be silenced.

Carina Merrick

Redwood City