Letters

COPS, BRUTALITY & RACE

"Maybe the shooting of Amadou Diallo wasn't murder, but certainly a price should be paid for a mistake of such magnitude." KARL NURMI Sudbury, Ont.

Forty-one shots fired at Amadou Diallo? Clearly, these New York City police officers were out of control [NATION, March 6]. DOROTHY MENEGHINI Norway, Mich.

We may never know whether race played a part in the Diallo shooting. Even if it did not, we are left with four police officers who, despite a combined experience of 28 years and more than 300 arrests, were unable to determine after the first barrage that their suspect had not fired a single shot. If cooler heads had prevailed, wouldn't Diallo still be alive today? As trained professionals, police officers must be able to assess situations, not simply use deadly force against anything threatening. The verdict in the Diallo case at a minimum should have been "guilty of reckless endangerment." Now, anyone could fall victim to impetuous and rash policing. BEVERLY JACKSON Laurel, Md.

In the trial of the four officers who shot Diallo, a jury of 12 honest citizens heard the evidence and concluded that the men were not guilty of murder. It is uncommon for 12 people to render a bad verdict when all the evidence is presented correctly. By definition, that is justice in America. What kind of justice is sought by people who marched in the streets protesting the verdict? Do they want everyone tried in the court of public opinion? I hope not. ROBERT DAWSON Conyers, Ga.

I am sure that I speak for millions of others when I express how sickened I was at the not-guilty verdict. I am 41 times more afraid of the police because this trial shows they can get away with cold-blooded murder. SCOTT GOLD Crown Point, Ind.

Your cover and headline "Cops, Brutality & Race" stereotyped all police officers as brutal racists. The Diallo case and Los Angeles police department scandal are no more typical of the vast majority of police than inner-city crime is representative of all African Americans. MARK FRYE Myrtle Beach, S.C.

The cops were in an unmarked car and were not in uniform. It is possible that Diallo thought he was being held up by street thugs. The tendency would be to fight or flee. And flee he did. R. RAJARAMAN Chennai, India

Diallo's mother may lament the fact that no one got to know her son through the trial testimony, but court is not a talk show. And if civil rights activist Al Sharpton really wants to effect change in the New York police, he could probably be more influential by being silent rather than delivering hostile tirades. TIM LAITINEN Arlington, Texas

Police abuse of innocent citizens in minority communities across this country is as old as America. Black males--and I am one--are automatically nervous in the presence of the police. Rulings that allow an officer's personal reaction to replace probable cause (the long-standing basis for stop-and-search actions) have led to more stops, more unjustified searches and ultimately more abuses. TIM ANDERSON Tempe, Ariz.

Of course no one should be shot for pulling a wallet from his pocket, as Diallo was. But look at the incident from a policeman's point of view. If we are going to put a cop on the street late at night in an area of the city known to have a high crime rate, he has the right to protect himself without fearing that if he does react to a threat he will be put in jail. I sympathize with the Diallo family, but I also feel for the police officers, who put their lives on the line each day for the safety of all of us. ROBERT L. SYKES Fort Worth, Texas

SCARY SALMON?

Thanks for the story about genetically modified salmon [SCIENCE, March 6]. My family usually eats salmon every week, so we're accustomed to the seasonal taste and texture variations of wild salmon. Our experience with farm-raised salmon initially fooled us; the fish looks fine, but the meat is mushy and lacks flavor. Who's going to monitor the taste and nutritional value of factory fish? I hope the government will look very carefully into the aftereffects these transgenic fish may cause and the implications for the public, who will probably have little choice but to eat them. JOHN ANDERSON Burlingame, Calif.

You discussed the work of our company in your story "Make Way for Frankenfish!" While the article was balanced, the headline was inflammatory. The word Frankenfood and its derivatives were coined by those avowedly opposed to any application of the new technology to food products. The use of prejudicial words is an attempt to instill fear rather than promote reasoned discussion. Gene modification has the potential to be one of the most important and beneficial tools to increase the quantity and nutritional value of food. In the case of A/F Protein's AquAdvantage fish, which reaches adult size in half the time otherwise required, the prospect of doubling production without increasing the use of coastal waters and with less use of fish feed represents a true benefit to consumers and ocean ecology. The media need to accept the challenge and report on gene modification of foods in a way that creates an enlightened debate. ELLIOT ENTIS, PRESIDENT A/F Protein, Inc. Waltham, Mass.

I am looking forward to reeling in a 50-lb. lunker right out of my backyard pond. I say, Bring on the Frankenfish! LUCAS A. SCHLEMMER Columbia, Ill.

NO TO THE GENOME PROJECT

Matt Ridley refers to the study of human genes and the idea of the genome as a book [SCIENCE, Feb. 28]. Well, I sincerely hope that nobody will ever be able to read the DNA book. It would be interesting to know how many people really want the human genome to be mapped. One can't be for the project and against cloning, genetic engineering for humans and all the things that are tightly linked to genetic research. Technology has always led to the best and the worst: steel gave us plows but also weapons; computers gave us the Internet but also guided nuclear missiles. There is no reason to think that in a couple of centuries man has evolved so much that we would be able to change our basic instincts. I vote against the Human Genome Project. JEAN-MARC JANCOVICI Orsay, France

USING THE BIG STICK

The barbarity of the Chechen conflict was graphically depicted in your report about the fighting [LETTER FROM CHECHNYA, Feb. 21]. It is disturbing to note that some world leaders who are quick to condemn human-rights violations and the use of brute force by Western countries are very quiet about this issue. Reading of the atrocities and seeing photographs of the casualties, I think Russia, which claims to have beaten the Chechens, feels that since it has the bigger stick, it does not have to use its head. ALFONSO T. CLAVERIA Awali, Bahrain

MORE ABOUT LLOYD'S

Re your article on the lawsuit against Lloyd's of London [BUSINESS, Feb. 28]: I write as chairman of the first group of Lloyd's Names to get a judgment against Lloyd's Agents. The $800 million we were awarded is still the largest judgment in British legal history. You ignored the fact that we and thousands of other Lloyd's Names went to court and got judgments against our agents.

The $120 billion figure that you quote for Lloyd's losses from asbestosis is inaccurate, since less than $4 billion of Lloyd's declared net losses to date can be attributed to asbestosis. The key point that is not clear from your article is that Lloyd's is a market, not a single business. The actual losses have inflicted terrible harm on many Names. However, numerous judgments of the English courts have found that the losses were the result of gross negligence by many underwriters and agents and of serious dishonesty by only a few people.

The allegation that the Council of Lloyd's deliberately recruited tens of thousands of Names in the '80s comes from Names who are seeking a judgment that would enable them to avoid paying a penny of their losses. There is another side to this story. MICHAEL DEENY, CHAIRMAN Gooda Walker Action Group Salisbury, England

Mr. Deeny is a member of the board of Equitas Ltd., the reinsurance company created to assume responsibility for all pre-1993 Lloyd's obligations.

I.R.A. DECOMMISSIONING

When the African National Congress was no longer banned and Nelson Mandela was released from prison, no one imposed any conditions. Why can't the same be done with the I.R.A. [WORLD, Feb. 21]? The A.N.C. did not have to hand in any weapons. I don't like either side in Northern Ireland to have weapons, but the parties have to go about achieving the peace agreement in a different way. Right now, they keep going round and round and getting nowhere. So why not try a no-strings-attached approach; what have they got to lose? DOROTHY SUTTON Cape Town

The impasse over the decommissioning of guns and explosives in Northern Ireland could be resolved if the U.S. took the arms of all paramilitaries and cached them somewhere other than Northern Ireland. The U.S. would give a receipt for the arms, and they would technically still belong to the I.R.A. and others. The executive body could reconvene, because weapons would not be an immediate threat, and the I.R.A. would still have until the May deadline to work out decommissioning without losing face or giving up arms to the "enemy." RON KERNAHAN Burbach, Germany

TRANSCENDING TINSELTOWN

This is really too much--heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio on your cover [CINEMA, Feb. 21]! Are you bent on targeting the teen market? Of course, there must be coverage of nonpolitical events; nobody is against that. But a cover story using up all that space? In this day and age of unlimited Internet access and an explosion in the number of cable- and satellite-TV channels available, I would expect you to take the lead with in-depth, responsible reporting of important news events that transcend the bubbly charm of Tinseltown. VALENTIN VASILEV Jerusalem

DiCaprio is quoted as saying people will wonder, "Why the hell is he on the cover of TIME magazine?" Never were truer words spoken! CLARE A. MORRIS Lancaster, England

UNLIMITED MUSICAL TOOLS

Your article on the "New Tonalists," composers who have turned away from hard-edged, avant-garde sounds, troubled me [MUSIC, March 6]. I don't like the idea that there are only two 20th century musical camps and that consonance and dissonance are the determining factors. Composers of the Romantic era took the tonal system they inherited from the classicists and extended it. As a composer, I want to have an unlimited number of tools at my disposal. This idea of consonance vs. dissonance, simplicity vs. complexity and Brussels sprouts vs. steak forces me to limit myself by choosing one or the other. If everyone learns how to listen to new kinds of music, to find out what is there to appreciate, we may find some of the same passion, joy, pain and life in the new music that we found in the music of the past. CHRISTOPHER WATTS University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music Bellevue, Ky.

You named several current composers aligned with those called the "New Tonalists." But a number of other composers, myself included, foreshadowed the return to tonalism back in the 1950s and '60s, when audiences left the concert halls in droves to protest what they felt was music that did not communicate. My compositions were dubbed "hopelessly tonal." Now it is safe to be a tonal composer. But the risk lies in music becoming so openly derivative and unchallenging, so dangerously reliant on effect, that it will invite a swing away from tonality and a move back to another period of nontonality. BENJAMIN LEES Palm Springs, Calif.

ALL EYES ON THAT DRESS

The revealing outfit that Jennifer Lopez wore to the Grammys does not bother me [PEOPLE, March 6]. What does annoy me is that you could feed a small country for the price some people pay for those designer dresses. I would rather Lopez had given her money to charity and gone naked. SARA DURBIN Lancaster, Calif.

FAITHFUL FIDO

Roger Rosenblatt has a gift for putting thoughts into perfect words. His piece "Stand by Me--for a Moment," on loyalty--or the lack of it [ESSAY, Feb. 21], came at a good time for me, as I'm on my sixth job in nine years. When the delicate question of loyalty comes up in conversations with ex-colleagues, my comment is, "If you want loyalty, get yourself a dog." My last boss had two. GULU EZEKIEL New Delhi