Bravo for your front-page article about Mike Elliott ("Brooklyn Center sets new threshold for arrests," Sept. 29). The Brooklyn Center mayor is a superstar. Nothing can erase the tragedy of Daunte Wright's needless death, but Elliott shows us how to begin healing. Look what he has done so far: Hours after Wright was shot on April 11, the mayor ordered release of bodycam and squad videotape. By the next day, he fired the city manager for lax supervision of police, then accepted the resignations of the officer involved and her chief. As tensions escalated, he ordered Brooklyn Center police to quit firing provocative flash-bangs and tear gas at protesters. When officers from other jurisdictions continued those confrontational measures, he worked with their supervisors to de-escalate as well. He even moved families and children in nearby apartments to hotels until the teargas cleared. Now he begins to address the root problems with de-escalation and fundamental solutions. The mayor of my beloved Minneapolis could learn from this man and the City Council working closely with him. Mike Elliott is a hero.

Charles Underwood, Minneapolis

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Regarding the Brooklyn Center proposal on using "unarmed civilians" for traffic stops. Can this be fleshed out? Will these be a cadre of trained civilians like meter maids, traffic cops or school crossing guards? Would this open the door to a rising number of vigilantes? Would they be on foot or walking? Would they have uniforms? Please keep us updated on the plan and its rollout.

Mary K. Lund, Minnetonka

To keep my neighborhood, and everyone else's, safe we need to look beyond the status quo. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, the Star Tribune Editorial Board and political groups funded by the police union are desperately trying to tell us that the status quo is enough, but they have no plan to address the many flaws of our system of public safety. City Question 2 is the only plan to create a Department of Public Safety in Minneapolis.

When I call 911, I don't want to worry about the armed response that I'm going to get. What my community needs is social workers and housing experts to help unhoused people find a place to live; mental health and addiction specialists to help people in crisis; trained de-escalation experts to resolve noise complaints or domestic disputes, and armed police to resolve violent or dangerous situations, to keep people safe.

Jeanne Lakso, Minneapolis

Thank you for the Sept. 29 article on "fresh faces" in Minneapolis' 10th Ward. I think it would be helpful for readers and voters to know that in addition to being a stay-at-home mom, Alicia Gibson is also a neighborhood activist; a lawyer trained in environmental and federal Indian law, conflict resolution and restorative justice; a former adjunct professor with her doctorate in comparative literature who taught critical thinking at the University of Minnesota, and a former small-business owner and founder of a small-business association. While there was not an endorsement in the DFL Caucus, Gibson was a strong second with 191 delegates; the rest of the candidates received single digits. She is the only candidate who has lived in four of the five neighborhoods in the ward, first as a student renter and now as a homeowner.

Mary Hartnett, Minneapolis

The writer is the campaign manager for Alicia Gibson.

Nearly a year and a half after the riots, there's still scant improvement along East Lake Street in Minneapolis. Empty lots, damaged buildings that have not been attended to, and a general lack of restaurants and stores we used to shop at. The Star Tribune has devoted little coverage to updating information regarding the Third Precinct, the post office, the Walgreens, and the empty lots where the Town Talk once stood at Lake and 27th and other buildings along 27th Avenue South. What about the East Lake Hennepin Health Care clinic? What about the boarded-up O'Reilly Auto Parts building?

There have been bits of progress — the Cub Foods, Aldi's and Target are open, and a chicken strip restaurant is being built where the Arby's once stood. U.S. Bank is working on the small branch on 36th and Lake Street. The Wells Fargo wisely moved and reopened in the strip mall on 27th next to Aldi's. Wendy's was rebuilt and is open, too. But there's still significant emptiness around this area, and the paper has done a poor job keeping us informed.

Barry Margolis, Minneapolis

There is a monkey wrench yet to be hurled into the abortion debate: acknowledging that the essence of human life is not restricted to physical viability but includes our long-held beliefs and commitments to the existence of the human soul ("Balancing life and privacy," Readers Write, Sept. 26).

One letter writer attempts to simplify the abortion issue when he states, "Conception stays the same. It's the one constant. Human life begins." Or, is it that human existence is truly created when a soul assumes its long-term commitment to the physical body? That moment, when a soul establishes within the body, is indeterminate, yet would that writer and others claim that a human soul stands at the ready to piggyback a ride as soon as the female egg is fertilized?

Since there is no tracking the arrival of the human soul, scientists, theologians, right-to-lifers and even choice advocates steer clear of "the soul question." Left out of the abortion debate, it remains the unacknowledged great unknown of human existence. That seems to qualify it as transformational within the national debate. If, as so many of us believe, the soul is our human essence, then including it in discussions should help shift the debate from righteous right and wrong to positions of respectful inquiry and uncertainty.

Wrestling anew with this great unknown could shorten the divide and quiet the charged debate.

Steven E. Watson, Minneapolis

News that all restrictions on John Hinckley Jr. have been lifted by a federal judge is both disheartening and alarming ("Would-be assassin Hinckley wins freedom," Sept. 28), as is last month's recommendation for the release of Sirhan Sirhan by a California parole board.

Violent crimes, especially those with collateral victims, deserve severe punishment. Crimes directed at elected leaders and political figures deserve extraordinary punishment because they are an assault and affront on democracy itself. These are crimes in which all of us are victims, regardless of our political persuasions.

At a time when one of our primary political parties has acknowledged, and even aided and abetted, political violence to the extent of an attempted coup, it is unsettling to see Hinckley set free.

Dave Hoenack, Minneapolis