CRIME VICTIM

To the editor:

In his June 6 commentary UNLV professor Randall Shelden decries the
growth of prisons and jails, pontificating that their existence alone
impels society to fill them, ("If you build it, they will come"). Mr.
Shelden's long tirade on how we have become "just as wicked as the
offenders" because we choose to defend ourselves from the criminal is
liberal thinking at its finest.

He urges that we ask, "Why. Why do we have so much crime?" (Maybe
because some people would rather take from others, rather than earn it
themselves? And some criminals, when asked why they did the crime,
said they liked the feeling of power.)

He wonders, "Why are so many of our young people using dangerous
substances?" (Perhaps because their lives are devoid of spiritual or
other values that might give them the satisfaction they seek in drugs
and alcohol? Or maybe they just like getting "high.")

To me and the vast majority of my fellow beings, the "why" is orders
of magnitude less important than is being protected from those who
cannot or will not live by the rules that a society must have in order
to avoid anarchy.

Dave Downer

Henderson