As a former Penn State student and current New York City police officer I would like to address the letter about the police being too brutal at the anti-war protest ("Some police too brutal at New York war protest," Feb. 19). What the author fails to realize is that there were many protesters who were physically assaulting police officers. In all, eight police officers were injured, including one police horse. Keeping such a large number of people in order is an extremely difficult job.

The author should also realize that the protest was so big that what he saw at one particular street corner was not representative of the rest of the protest. I am just pointing out that we did a great job keeping a majority of the protest peaceful. Hopefully, he can come to New York City and interact with police officers on a different level and see how difficult our job can be at times.