To the Editor:

Re "California's Governor Plays Tough on Crime" (news article, May
23): The marginal success of Gov. Gray Davis's zero tolerance crime
policies underscores the dangers of a government that cedes the power
of discretion in deference to public demand for law and order.

As crime in California, and all of the United States, continues at
levels that shock most of the industrialized world, one wonders how
treating 14-year-old suspects as adults, requiring life sentences for
minor felonies and denying due process to prisoners can be justified.

Criminals can be punished without enacting the draconian,
one-size-fits-all policies that are gradually making the Unites States
look more like the Singapore that Mr. Davis evokes.

GARY R. WESTHOFF
Bronxville, N.Y., May 23, 2000