I’m responding to Stephen Carnahan’s July 17 letter on Trooper John Darcy’s traffic stop on someone who looked like a “thug.”

Carnahan apparently never in his life saw individuals who were up to no good. Fortunately for him, there are guardians out there like Darcy, who are always looking.

Spotting a thug takes some time and experience. It starts with a “calling” into a profession that nobody wants to do, yet everyone knows how, thanks to “training films” like CSI and Cops.

Follow that calling with four years of military service instilling discipline, structure and command presence for one’s eventual meeting with said “thug.” Or, one could go the college route, gaining knowledge of the law, eventually earning that degree that so many agencies require. The truly dedicated do both.

Next, one spends 18 weeks of intense academy training, to have the tools and knowledge on how to deal with that thug when (s)he finally meets him. It’ll happen.

After that, soak up as much knowledge from the field training officer, who will try to teach how not to do all the dumb things (s)he did years ago. One then spends the next multitude of years refining all those skills to figure out who the “thugs” are. All while the rest of the sheep in the world are tucked safely in their beds while being kept safe.

For the record, I had no idea that thug was “closely identified with Black men,” I thought it was a bad guy issue.

Craig MacMillan, Greene