Young, gifted and Black – and unfairly jailed over song lyrics

‘Our talented young Black musicians should be encouraged, not jailed.’ Illustration: Tomekah George/The Guardian

Thanks to Ciaran Thapar (What kind of society sends young men to jail and ruins lives because of the lyrics in a song?, 31 January). This is a totally unjustified attack on young Black musicians. Tom Jones got away with his knifing-Delilah song and so did Jimi Hendrix’s Hey Joe (“with that gun in your hand”) and Motörhead’s Shoot You in the Back. Our talented young Black musicians should be encouraged, not jailed.
Jenny Moir
Chelmsford

• Your article (Cressida Dick sought £500,000 to quit as Met chief, 29 January) lists a series of scandals reported by the mayor of London, over which she presided as police commissioner but omits perhaps the most serious, in which she was personally involved. As you reported in June 2021, the official inquiry into Daniel Morgan’s murder and corruption in the force “found she had hampered its efforts to get to the truth”.
Ian Reissmann
Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire