I agree with Bob Wilson’s recent column that the state should adequately fund the SBI Crime Lab (DN, Jan. 27, bit.ly/W8GdxA). The Crime Cabinet and Durham County have been lobbying for additional funding for many years. However, according to a report recently prepared for the Crime Cabinet, “the SBI has not increased their staffing levels to match both an increase in workload and a U.S. Supreme Court decision that requires lab chemists to testify in person rather than by means of affidavit for the lab work they analyzed.”

When District Attorney Leon Stanback brought a proposal for creation of a local Durham crime lab (similar to the lab in Wake County) to the Crime Cabinet last summer, we created an ad hoc committee to study the issue. The committee looked at a variety of options and recommended adding three positions at the SBI lab as the most efficient solution. While three positions will be needed in the short term to catch up on the backlog, we may be able to drop to two positions after getting caught up. Based on cost estimates from three local labs run by Wake, Pitt and Iredell counties, a local crime lab would cost $1 million to start up and about $100,000 more to run than contracting with the SBI.

As we closed the discussion, the Crime Cabinet recommended a two-pronged approach: continue to lobby for more funding for the SBI crime lab in the state budget; and recommend that the city and county consider funding additional positions in the SBI lab. Given the pattern over the past decade, there was not optimism that sufficient funding would materialize.

Ellen Reckhow

Co-chair, Durham Crime Cabinet

Durham County Commissioner

Time to join in the Mardis merriment

The Durham Mardi Gras Group is once again asking the Bull City to prepare for the revelry.

A loose coalition of mystic societies is planning the 2013 Durham Mardi Gras Parade and Celebration on Feb. 12, aka Fat Tuesday. We are asking new and current krewes to recruit and strategize in an effort to make 2013 a banner Bull City Mardi Gras.

Parade participants should plan on meeting around 6:30 p.m. at the CCB Plaza, 201 N. Corcoran St. The parade is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. The parade, which will be on the sidewalk, will follow the same route as last year, ending on Rigsbee Street near Motorco Music Hall and Fullsteam Brewery.

More details, and possibly more events, to come.

For organizational purposes, please have a representative of your krewe send an email to trappermark@gmail.com.

For updates join the Durham Mardi Gras Group, facebook.com/groups/171716006268967/ and confirm your attendance on the event page facebook.com/events/304842716303530/.

Virginia Bridges

Durham

No exception

A letter in your Jan. 27 edition makes the absurd and misleading statement that “far more people are killed by drunk drivers than madmen with assault rifles, but I don’t hear any calls for banning alcohol.”

The relevant realities are that 1) the 30,000 annual firearms deaths in the U.S. are triple the deaths from drunk drivers and 2) every state in the U.S. regulates blood alcohol levels in drivers and imposes severe penalties for exceeding those limits.

Every freedom guaranteed by the Bill of Rights is constrained by limits that serve and protect the public interest. Guns should be no exception.

Jerry VanSant

Chapel Hill

Colonial thinking

It’s the 1770s in colonial America. We are facing terror attacks from people who live in the same country that we do (Native Americans), we are suspicious of supporting a standing army from our experiences in Europe and we have a lot of slaves that are escaping and who might just rebel violently. What can we do? We call upon every able-bodied man to be prepared to do his turn defending the colony in the state militia. To do so, he needs his own weapon and to spend time joining with others to keep the peace and return stolen property. If such a thing is not enshrined in the new constitution, Virginia may not join the other colonies.

And so we have the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights.

Of the original reasons for empowering state militias, what remains? We have a standing army, and a National Guard, our Native Americans are not conducting war on us, slavery has been abolished and Virginia has joined the United States. For what reason are we encouraging so many of our citizens to buy and carry weapons? Is it to defend against other citizens who are also carrying weapons? Isn’t that circular reasoning?

Janice Pinchot Woychik

Chapel Hill

Voter ID essential

In response to the editorial “Keeping King’s legacy” (N&O, Jan. 21): It is absolutely shocking to me that you believe America is regressing by stating that voter ID is regressive and is merely an attempt to suppress the votes of the poor and elderly people. Even more, you added that it was politically motivated (by Republicans against Democrats).

If someone makes a purchase using a credit card, he is likely asked for ID. If you drive a car, you must have a valid driver's license. (Have you tried to get a license at the DMV lately?) To get a fishing license, you need valid identification!

I fail to see why it would be considered “oppressive,” “discriminatory” or “regressive” to require a voter to prove who he or she is when arriving at the voting station. When we, as Americans, proceed to cast our one and only vote for a political candidate, wouldn’t most Americans want to believe the candidate was elected fairly by the Americans legally registered to vote?

Todd Rust

Durham

Diplomat dangers

Forty years ago two Turkish diplomats in Los Angeles became the victims of hate crimes on U.S. soil. On Jan. 27, 1973, a 77-year-old Armenian-American man, Gourgen Yanikian, gunned down the Consul General of Turkey, Mehmet Baydar, and the Vice Consul, Bahadir Demir, in a Santa Barbara hotel. Sentenced to life imprisonment, Yanikian was released on parole in January 1984 by then California Governor, George Deukmejian.

On the day of his crime, Yanikian issued a public appeal urging to kill Turks, which inspired JCAG – a militant offshoot of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) – and the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA). Between 1975 and 1991, the two terrorist groups staged over 300 attacks murdering scores of Turkish diplomats and civilians across North America, Europe and the Middle East.

Nine years after Yanikian’s crime, on Jan. 28, 1982, 20-year-old Harry Sassounian, murdered the Turkish Consul General, Kemal Arikan, at a street intersection in Los Angeles. While Sassounian was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in 1984, some Armenian-American groups named him a hero and pushed for his parole eligibility in 2002. Last year, Paul Krekorian, the Los Angeles City Councilman of Armenian heritage, petitioned federal authorities to pardon Sassounian.

The 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, which killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and four others, and the recent threats by ASALA against Turkish and Azerbaijani officials highlight current dangers against diplomats at home and abroad. I join Turkic-Americans, members of the Pax Turcica Institute, to commemorate the fallen Turkish diplomats and to urge U.S. officials remain vigilant about the security of diplomats on our soil. Instead of seeking to justify hate crimes by sympathizing with convicted murderers, our elected representatives should promote tolerance in their ethnic constituencies.

Selen Yalin

Raleigh