LETTER TO THE EDITOR
By: Clifford Nazzaro
To the editor:
It is beyond comprehension that I should be accused of "trying to incite racial disharmony" at Kendall Park Roller Skating Center. The fact is, for more than 30 years, I have provided friendly, safe, inexpensive entertainment for this community and have always treated all my patrons with respect and consideration. If that were not true, my business would have disolved long ago.
While I have enjoyed a cooperative and excellent working relationship with the law enforcement community for decades, it is indeed my right to voice my concern when they act too harshly and put the innocent skating public in unnecessary danger. A small scuffle involving two or more disorderly people out of 700 skaters hardly calls for such an aggressive tactic as pepper spray, especially when you consider the fact that there were 10 law enforcement professionals on the premises. Clearly, this was an unjustified and inappropriate response which could easily have resulted in injury to many skaters trying to exit the building in haste. The offenders should have been apprehended and escorted out of the building. Period.
Any suggestion that I have not always had the safety of my customers and the betterment of my community as my primary concern is completely undeserved. I have been an upstanding member of this community for many years and take exception to the accusation that I have acted improperly. Absentee critics, who have no knowledge of the facts of this incident, should reconsider their position. Escalation, based on ignorance of facts, of an already unfortunate situation is not productive nor is it in the best interest of the community. If harmony is the goal, and I believe it is, the topic of discussion is a much bigger one: how do we take control of a threatening situation and at the same time protect the innocent from those individuals who do not abide by the law. Any way you look at it, the question remains, was it prudent to pepper spray an entire building full of people in order to disperse a very small number of disorderly people?
Certainly I appreciate the support of our local police on both a personal and professional level. I am not insensitive to the risks of law enforcement. But the extremely poor judgment exercised in this case has now created an even more distressing situation. The repercussions of the police activity of that evening reach far beyond the issue of safety and venture into the sacred ground of fairness, reason and accountability.
Clifford Nazzaro
Kendall Park
Mr. Nazzaro is the owner of the Kendall Park Roller Skating Center.