Letters: Richland deputy wasn’t punished enough

What’s wrong with this picture? A young man is stopped by a deputy sheriff, becomes “verbally aggressive” and refuses to exit his car when he is asked by the deputy. He calls an ex-law enforcement officer who in turn calls the young man’s mother, who is a deputy sheriff in another jurisdiction. The mother shows up driving her patrol car, and she also refuses to obey the officers.

The son is charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and operating a vehicle without registration and license. The mother is charged with hindering officers.

It’s bad that a law enforcement officer’s child has no respect for authority, and it gets worse when his mother shows no respect for her fellow officers. But the really terrible part of this is that the sheriff the mother works for thinks three days suspension without pay is proper punishment “for taking a Richland County issued vehicle and displaying behavior not representative of the sheriff’s department.” Shame on Sheriff Leon Lott.