Chad Thornton Replies to Rachel Lange

By Paul Ford

Chad Thornton writes in in to show support, and emails the city of Pittsburgh.

Rachel,

I read your disheartening and troubling story on Ftrain. I send an email to the Mayor's office to express my concern, and they claim that they're looking in to it. Below is a copy of the email I received from them, followed by my original email - you might be hearing from somebody, so I wanted to let you know in advance.

Police brutality is an ugly abuse of power, and it sickens me how prevalent it is in the U.S., not to even mention abroad. Please keep me updated as to how things are proceeding, and let me know if there's anything else I can do.

From: Chad Thornton
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 10:45 AM
To: Dolores Hanna
Subject: Mayors Service Center Request Form

[Thornton's address and phone number erased]

Your Comments=Hi, I just read a troubling story about recent police brutality involving Pittsburgh's finest. It can be found here: http://ftrain.com/pittsburgh_rachel.html

Could someone from the Mayor's office please contact the author of the story to verify its credibility? If it is true, could you please tell me what actions are being taken to prevent further incidents?

It concerns me greatly to see police officers abuse the privileges given to them to use as peacemakers. It is *not* the role of police officers to make personally-motivated attacks on public citizens due to their own beliefs. Their role is to uphold the law, and to do so with respect and dignity. The above article suggests that this hasn't been occurring.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your response.

Chad Thornton

Local citizen living in Friendship