The men and women in uniform who serve our communities are deserving of our respect and admiration. Every Shabbat morning, the members of my shul greet and thank the police officer standing sentry, ensuring our safety. These officers all wear bullet proof vests because they run a real risk of being in the line of fire every single day that they serve our community. These brave men and women are a major contributor to the freedom we experience in Teaneck, Bergen County and well beyond.

We all know the derogatory connotations when saying someone is from Chelm: they’re imbeciles who, if there was an easy way or a hard way to do something, they’d always do things the wrong way!

Rabbi Mordechai and Nina Glick’s June 20 piece (“Seat of Bergen County Relocates to Chelm”) bemoaning the Chelm-like nature of our police force is disparaging to our incredible police officers. Calling the chief of police the “chief of clowns” is insulting and simply uncalled for. Criticizing a police officer for sitting in his car and following the instructions of his superiors, whether right or wrong, shows their clear lack of understanding of police protocols and chain of command. While the officer’s actions may appear to be confusing to those not in law enforcement, the benefit of the doubt must be afforded to the officer who explained why he was waiting where he was. Perhaps he was waiting where people were used to crossing to direct them to the safer crosswalk further down the road?

Public safety, whether at a crosswalk, at a shul entrance, or responding to serious crimes in our community is no laughing matter and the Glicks are way off the mark in their Chelm-like assessment of the bravest of our community. Perhaps in the future, they should consider thanking the officers for their service instead of belittling them as Chelm-mites.