Letter to the editor: Summer Lee, other Dems, support police

Pennsylvanians beware — Democratic candidates actually aren’t the folks calling to defund the police. The writer of the letter “Mike Doyle best choice for Congress in District 12” (Oct. 3, TribLIVE) said he believes state Rep. Summer Lee “would defund the police.”

I have had the pleasure of hearing Lee speak in person on a number of occasions and having personally engaged her on social issues, and she only ever showed respect toward law enforcement and has never called for defunding police. Lee knows we need brave souls in uniform making sure we can sleep safe at night. I’ll personally feel safer knowing someone like Lee is in a position to work with law enforcement on a national level in addressing ongoing division in communities across the nation.

What doesn’t make me feel safe is a Republican candidate calling for federal law enforcement officials to be defunded for doing something like making sure nuclear secrets don’t fall into the hands of foreign operatives at a certain former presidential compound in Florida. I feel less safe with candidates like Sen. Doug Mastriano, running for governor of Pennsylvania, a man who looked to me more frightened to answer questions at a recent inquiry (by law enforcement) into the insurrection on Jan. 6 than Donald Trump himself. Mastriano is currently suing to stop law enforcement from asking any more such questions.

So if you want to “Back the Blue,” you have to “Vote Blue” first.

Philip Vecchio

New Kensington