On Nov. 7, Riverside Police Department officer Ryan Bonaminio, 27, was shot to death after pursuing a suspect in a hit-and-run accident who fled on foot into Fairmount Park. Rubidoux parolee Earl Ellis Green, 44, was arrested two days later on suspicion of murder.

In response, Los Angeles Police Department officer Joseph D. Marx wrote this letter to Robert Ambroselli, director of Adult Parole Operations at the California Department of Corrections in Sacramento.

On the cold rainy night of Sunday, Nov. 7, 2010, Riverside Police Officer Ryan Bonaminio, a decorated two-time Operation Iraqi Freedom combat veteran and U.S. Army reservist, was cruelly and savagely murdered in cold blood while in foot pursuit of a hardened criminal that was granted parole by your board.

While Ryan spent his youth volunteering in the ROTC, playing sports, graduating high school and becoming an exemplary young man, Earl Ellis Green joined a set of the Crips criminal street gang, perfected his criminal ability and proved beyond any doubt that he had no respect for the general public or the rule of law.

While Ryan made the honorable and noble decision to serve our country in a time of war and valiantly place his very life in the line of fire, Green stole cars, sold drugs, assaulted police officers and terrorized his family with egregious violence.

While Ryan prepared to come home from the battlefield after surviving the war on terror for a second time and resume his career as a Riverside police officer, Green proclaimed his atonement to your board and begged for parole, which was granted. I cannot imagine the maudlin plea Green concocted to obtain your pity.

While Ryan was greeted at the airport by his friends and family and embraced by his doting mother and loving father, Green quietly walked through the revolving door of the California prison system and reentered society - only to return to a life of violent crime.

Nobody truly knows what further crimes Green intended to commit that fateful Sunday night or how many more countless victims he would create during the remainder of his pathetic, lonely, miserable life. If it had not been for Ryan's bravery and valor and his tenacity to apprehend one of California's dangerous parolees, Green would have undoubtedly victimized the citizens of Riverside County for decades.

The juvenile notion that a state prison system, or any other system, can reform or rehabilitate a hardened criminal gang member with a proven track record of felonious crimes is preposterous. How many more police officers have to be gunned down in cold blood before your board will come to its senses? How could your board conceive of the notion that Green is a "non-violent" offender when his past behavior of violence is so well documented? Why was Green granted parole when he should have been locked up until 2012? Prisons were built for the likes of felons like Green.

For the past two decades Ryan proved himself to be a dedicated, giving, honorable man while Green has done nothing but commit crime, terrorize the community and create victims. I cannot fathom the rationale behind the parole board granting parole for a proven criminal with a violent past. Ryan is the epitome of a hero and his blood is on your hands.

You have the ability to stop this senseless violence and unquestionably save hundreds of lives by denying parole to felons like Green. I implore you to deeply consider and heavily weigh the risks inherent in unleashing criminal gang members back into our peaceful community.

While you sit in the hearing room and listen to these criminals recite sob stories and plead for release, remember that they earned their place in the prison system and deserve nothing but to be locked up. Remember the victims they created and the reason they were sentenced to prison in the first place.

Remember that more than 70 percent of the convicts that appear in front of your board will ignore the warnings to live a law-abiding life, and will re-offend.

Remember the broken hearts of the victim's friends and family.

Remember the families that will have an empty chair at the dinner table because their loved one was stolen from them by a parolee.

Most importantly, remember Ryan and the dozens of other police officers who have been murdered in the line of duty by convicts who were granted parole by your board.

Joseph D. Marx is an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. The views expressed are his own, not necessarily the department's.