To the editor:

Regarding Paula Kissinger’s letter (Feb. 27) about actions of the Lawrence Police and protesters during a demonstration against a $500-a-plate dinner at the Lawrence Holidome, Ms. Kissinger stated, “for the third time now, protesters have gotten away with assaulting our police officers.”

Ms. Kissinger is ignoring that, in this country, we pride ourselves on a protected belief that those accused of a crime are innocent until proven guilty. Her assertion proclaims just the opposite.

Three trials went before those given the power and privilege to listen to evidence and determine whether the state or city can prove beyond a reasonable doubt whether those individuals had committed a crime. In all three cases, the individuals were cleared of most, if not all, of the charges leveled against them.

The courtroom is where allegations against individuals are decided, not in the letters to the editor in our local newspaper. I only wonder why Ms. Kissinger thinks she knows the cases better than any of the people that listened to all the evidence on both sides and made the decisions they did. Why is someone that has already signed off these protesters as guilty until proven innocent more qualified than those fine men and women who did have the patience to sit through these proceedings?

I can only ask Ms. Kissinger if she was in the courtroom on any of those days and what evidence she has heard to “know” that these protesters are guilty.

David Strano,

Lawrence