Yet one more personal safety issue on which Sen. Susan Collins needs to separate herself from President Trump is his provocative stance on the police violence we are suffered to watch daily.

I was an ER doctor for 30-plus years at Eastern Maine Medical Center and Maine Region 4 EMS medical director for 20. Not once did I see any such behaviors by our fine Maine community police officers. But we have no protection in most other states.

Are there even any universal rules for a routine traffic stop? Do I freeze my hands where they are in the dark, put my second hand on the wheel, put my hands out the window? Will I be shot when I’m directed to show my registration and automatically reach into the glove compartment?

What happens when I automatically reach down to lift my nearly fused right hip to get out, or that leg is kicked out from under me with my hands pinned to the roofline or and my body falls twisting in white-hot pain? What happens when my umbilical hernia bursts, or the sharp wire suture 1 millimeter under the skin over my heart transplant comes through when I am thrown onto my car’s dirty hood while medically immunosuppressed?

America needs national police protocols and training for all the above, de-escalation of and backup for tense encounters, universal video monitoring of all duties and independent review of any use of force.

Supporting right-wing Republican efforts to stymie progress by appointing yet another “Study Commission” will fail miserably!

Paul A. Liebow, M.D., FACEP

Bucksport