Jesse Brewer

I sincerely believe that a person designed and who lived as Jesse Brewer did would be on his ascension rather than the death we mourn.

I met Jesse when he was my sergeant at 77th Division in the early 1960s. Of all the sergeants I then worked for, two stood out throughout my career; Jesse was one of them. At a time when political and civil unrest was dominant in our society, Jesse kept the calm in many of us. That was just his very pragmatic style. He assisted my thought on civil rights with his fatherly tutoring and counsel. When my own father passed, Jesse gave me consolation.

It’s interesting that the media presents such a terrific image of Jess Brewer currently. His time may have come as chief if such support had been expressed at a particular period in our history.

I was in a specialized unit during the early 1980s when Jesse Brewer presented us with a plan of street dominance against gang-oriented hoodlums. I can testify to its effectiveness in reducing the horrible crimes by these thugs during those periods. So the chief was not only a peacemaker, but a proven warrior as well.

During the Christopher Commission hearings, I did not entirely agree with everything Chief Brewer testified to before the commission, though he did it with integrity and in his usual pragmatic, low-keyed style of presentation.

STAN NELSON

San Pedro