I grew up with Jewish neighbors who survived Hitler’s 1930s Germany, and I was raised by a stepfather who was just some kid from Massachusetts who joined the Army and then experienced the horrors of fascism in Europe, including liberating an extermination camp.

A good Argentinian friend of mine, when she was a young teen, remembers when an unmarked green Ford Falcon, with four plainclothes secret police, took the neighbor college student away never to be heard from again.

Green Ford Falcons quickly became a symbol of terror and intimidation in Argentina. And now we have unidentified secret police in unmarked cars basically kidnapping people off the streets.

Add to this we have strong believers in the Second Amendment, who have been demonstrating heavily armed, some of them wearing the same clothes as the secret police who have been sent to our cities.

I understand the police and the demonstrators not wanting to be identified because they and their families now receive death threats. My Quaker pacifist activist nephew is one who regularly receives these threats.

We, as a country, need to dial things back a bit. And we need leaders – starting with our president – who need to do their job and bring us forward instead of destroy us.

Rob Stevens

Woolwich