TOO TOUGH ON CRIME?

To the Editor:

"Cities Reduce Crime and Conflict Without New York-Style Hardball" (front
page, March 4) points out that New York City's draconian anticrime measures
are no better than less aggressive strategies in other cities. The city's
inflated police presence has created an army of occupation with its
attendant casualties. The cost in lives disrupted by jail and, in a few
cases, ended by bullets is too high in human and monetary terms.

Crime moves in cycles influenced by various factors: Prohibition in the
1920's, crack cocaine more recently. New York State's 70,000 inmates are a
result of this zero tolerance for street crime, but are we better off?
Crime is one of the costs of living in an affluent society with areas of
poverty and despair.

Pierre C. Haber, New York, March 5, 2000

The writer is director of the Psychology Society.