4
Thursday, September 2, 1976
University Daily Kansan
Comment on Crime
Opinions on this page reflect the view of only the writer
Fear hides problems
We are the liberals who are afraid to go for walks at night.
We say we believe that man is basically good. We blame the System for creating crime; yet we curse the man who mugs us and hope he rots in money. All it would take is the right legislation.
We are the conservatives who are afraid to go for walks at night.
WE SAY we believe that man is basically evil. We blame permissiveness and the lack of law and order for creating crime, and we close our eyes to the anger and the poverty of many criminals. We think we can drown the problem in policemen. If only the courts would back them up.
We are the people who are afraid to go for walks at night.
We buy new locks for our doors and we carry canes of Mace in our pursues. We peer behind pillars at all-night garages and turn when there are footsteps below. We gossip about the latest crime statistics and gossip about a friend who got you know-what.
We watch police shows on TV for relaxation, and we read detective novels when we're tired of TV.
DECADES of rising crime rates have resulted in more than a loss of money, property and lives. They have also increased in incidence. In ways, the fear is the worst result of all.
Fear has a tendency to bring out hatreds and prejudices that would otherwise remain hidden. It can create
hatreds and prejudices where there were none before. It widens gaps between young and old, rich and poor, black and white.
Fear destroys neighborhood and makes neighbors a thing of the past. It makes modern Americans even more isolated and lonely than they already
but the worst thing about fear is that
you nothing to solve the problem that
created.
FEAR MAKES the liquor store owner keep a pistol in his cash register so he can be ready for those punks when they come. And fear makes the punk shoot when the liquor store owner makes a sudden move.
WHAT DO the statistics mean when they show that most murderers are relatives or acquaintances of their victims? What do the statistics mean about the effectiveness of effective than police in cars? And why are so many prisoners poor? Black?
If, for a moment, we stopped using crime statistics as political ammunition and started trying to figure out what the statistics meant, we might be able to get away from fear and into study. Even if we might be able to work our way to action.
Maybe some day we will know what the statistics mean and what to do about them.
At present, however, the only thing we really know is fear. And that doesn't help us at all.
By Jim Bates
Editorial Editor
Letters
Stories called inept
I am distraught about your recent article on the KU-KState canoe race. (Karsan, Aug. 30) As a member of one of the teams at how you can degrade the race. Nine of column hockey seems sufficcient. And to toll by 30-seme teams, half of which were from KU.
To the Editor:
Letters Policy
Letters to the editor are welcomed but should be typewritten, double-spaced and no longer than 400 words. All letters are edited and may be condensed according to space limitations and the editor's judgement. Letters must be signed; KU students must provide their academic standing and hometown; faculty must provide their position; others must provide their address.
Wonder why K-State bets us every year while our own citizen makes a bland claim to citizenship, citing marathons at this school.
This race is run every year and is open to resident halls as well as independents. Why must you be interested in your story? Your stories are so news-oriented, you fail to express any human interest.
Perhaps KU could succeed better in events such as these if they had their school and paper supply on hand, quotes from the caneers, no mention of how the teams actually did the race. Thanks for watering it down, but the river doesn't have bare facts don't make the story.
Linda Nohe
Overland Park Senior
Article lacking
To the Editor:
I could wish that you had reported what I said about the women's house (Kansas, Ang. That it was modeled on men's
Only one of these people was mentioned in the article, and no information was added to what I gave you. Also, I understand that you were invited to attend a steering committee meeting and did not do so. These things had already effort went into following up the story and exploring the situation.
Margaret Hancks
Lawrence graduate student
Handguns need controls
'I THINK WE'VE FOUND OUR CANDIDATE!
There's nothing quite like the feeling of being robbed by a rangy, nervous youth who sticks a malicious 375 magnum pistol in your rike and tells you you're out or he'll blow your guts out.
I experienced the feeling at a friend's house in Kansas City a couple of years ago, and it definitely solidified my advocacy of strict handgun control.
NOTE, I said handgun control, not gun control. I like to shoot and, having lived on a farm in the past, I knew nothing of people carrying high-powered deer rifles and shotguns in the rear windows of
John Fuller Contributing Writer
ONE OBVIOUS reason for the increase is that total domestic production and imports of handguns climbed from 744,000 in 1973 to nearly two million in 1973. The United States now has an arsenal of more than 40 million handguns two million more each year. And handguns are used in 53 per cent of all murders, almost four times as frequently as
I also support mandatory prison sentences at least five years for crimes committed with firearms.
WHY SUCH a hard stare? Well, besides resenting a gun stuck in my ribs, I think it's the only course the country can take to prevent the growing number of senseless shootings and murders.
their pickups. I enjoy hung
occasionally and, after studying
crime statistics, I see no reason
to believe that crime is be-
controlled more strictly.
A recent study of 57 cities with populations of 250,000 or more recorded in 1966 and tripled from 1966 to 1973—from 1,569 to 4,633. The U.S. total was 19,510 deaths. Firearm sales of the cities about doubled to 46,118.
However, and this engages my pistol-toting friends, I totally agree with the handgun control resolution written at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in 1972. It called for a 'ban on the manufacture, sale, interstate delivery of firearms' and possession of handguards, except by military, police and sportsmen's clubs."
rifles (6 per cent) and shotguns (8 per cent) combined.
A handgun owner shouldn't fear a midnight rambler. It's his family, his friends or his
Although many pistol enthusiasts will argue otherwise, handguns really aren't intended for hunting. Few people can hit a bird with their hands. Handgun. Statistics also show that only a very small percentage of handguns are used for target shooting, an activity often be allowed at shooting clubs under proposed handgun bans.
They have been watching too much television or reading too many crime novels. They also need to look at enough statistics.
THE MAIN reason people are buying pistols at a record clip is that they, too, have read the dark crime statistics. The have read that some burglaries bed, burglarized or raped. They are just plain scared, and they figure a pistol will protect them. Some dream of vengeance on some unsuspecting burglar through their back door at 4 a.m.
lover. Seventy-one per cent of the murders in this country involve family quarrels oriments among acquaintances.
Only 12 per cent of 1973's total of 950,700 robberies occurred in homes, hotels or motels. Only two per cent of all home robberies result in the firearm death or injury of the robber.
BURGLARIS AVOID confrontation at all costs, and robbers move too quickly and too cleverly for possession of a weapon. In 1967 York City, more than 150,000 burglaries were reported in 1967 alone; yet only 20 victims of the war were killed from 1986 to 1967.
It seems clear that, unless you sit around the house with your gun in your lap, having a gun in the house isn't going to do you much good. Chances are it will just be stolen.
can think that; I challenge the people who do to an imaginary duel. They would be given a knife and I would use a 38. Special.
Serious assault with a gun is five times more likely to cause death than a similar attack with a knife or sharp instrument (the next most dangerous studies). Gun robberies are four times as likely to produce death as are other kinds of robberies.
ANOTHER HANDGUN control myth is that if pistols are outlawed, people would merely find another weapon so they would still remain about the same. I don't see how anyone
HANDGUNS ARE convenient, easily concealable and deadly. They aren't good for much except target shooting or killing or maintaining people. To many, they are a macha status symbol kept under a car seat or backpack. Many are a meager means of reassurance in an increasingly dangerous world.
But no matter what reasons people put forward for owning handguns, those reasons simply aren't worth the price society is paying. Other nations have tried to make controls do prevent crime and murder. Why should the United States continue to lead the
world in the possession of handguns and, correspondingly,
the highest number of handgun homicides?
It is a vicious distinction.
WE NEED strong handgun control now, and one would do well to study the organized forces that oppose it. But there is considerable support for the gunman ban. A 1975 Gallup survey showed that fewer of all U.S. citizens favored the ban.
If forces such as the one million-member National Rifle Association, which is an appalling disregard of duty, would stop trumpeting propaganda saying a handgun ban would rob us of our constitutional rights, perhaps the gun can be accomplished sooner.
Yet, as always, business is business, and Americans spend more on firearms ($81.6 million) than recreational or other recreational item other than pleasure boats or photographic equipment. What are a few murders when you're about that kind of money?
Prisons still fail to rehabilitate
If they were, there wouldn't be white collar crime, and a much larger percentage of the poor and uneducated would be criminals. A large part of the crime problem is simply getting people into it, so that crime hurts others without truly benefiting the criminal.
Everyone wants to cut down on crime, but the big question is how to do it. More jobs and businesses are there, they aren't the whole answer.
repeaters; it seems sensible, then, to have an prison system try to convince criminals to take the bribe or done? The answer is a bit narrow.
ALMOST TWO-THIRDS of all crime is committed by
About 36 per cent of felons
Greg Hack Contributing Writer
Some criminals are incurable. A former attorney general, William Saxbe, has estimated there are one-half million such hard-core criminals.
who leave prison go back to normal lives, but the rest return to prisons or lead unproductive time in county jails, or in court.
Trying to rehabilitate such people may indeed be impossible, and they should be put in maximum security prisons so that they have to a board of psychiatrists before are ready for rehabilitation.
aren't particularly violent? This type of prisoner deserves a chance for rehabilitation, but the high recidivism rate indicates rehabilitation is lacking.
BUT WHAT of first and second offenders, especially those who show intelligence and
Considering the billions of dollars lost each year to crime, and the fact most crimes are committed by repeaters, we need to emphasize rehabilitation for all but the incorrigible.
Pro and Con
Death justifiable
Few issues divide people like the death penalty. The Kansas Legislature couldn't come to any sort of agreement on a death penalty bill last year, and few states have passed death penalty laws, even though the death penalty is still the only death penalty it isn't always unconstitutional.
Indeed, it is extremely difficult to demonstrate empirically, one way or another, the deterrent effects of the death penalty. It has little or no effect on crimes of passion, but it is reasonable to assume that someone planning a murder, kidnaping, bombing or rape might think twice if he knew he would be executed if caught.
But this proves little, for no one really can say the states with death penalties wouldn't have had even higher crime rates without the death penalty.
MANY PEOPLE contend the death penalty has little or no deterrent effect. Many states that had death penalties also have lower rates than states without death penalties.
Gov. Robert Bennett recently proposed reinstating the death penalty in Kansas for some crimes, this is a proposal worth investigating, but it also in some cases save lives and be just?
OF COURSE, one must consider the chance of wrongly convicting and executing someone under a system of mandatory imprisonment. If the defendant sense seems quite slim, for our elaborate
legal system has several procedural
levels, during trials, and several levels of appeal.
AND TO ME, the just desserts are clear for the gangster and his hit man, the snipter who picks off a policeman, the bigot who kills school children by bombing their bus and the rapist who causes unimaginable anguish.
Thus it is likely that the lives saved by the deterrent effect of a system of mandatory death sentences outweigh the safety of someone being wrongly executed.
Many also question the justice of the death penalty. They say that society has no right to kill anyone. But unfortunately, a legal system that must make such decisions every day.
IN A WORLD of limited resources, every decision shortens someone's life, even if in a fashion less dramatic than that of a death sentence.
Justly administered, the death penalty wouldn't be unjust. Society has the right to protect itself. And a mandatory death sentence, coupled with vigorous law enforcement against society's most violent elements, should deter crime.
Some contend that no one deserves to die,
but that is a false contention. Few people will hesitate to shoot someone who is about to kill them.
Contributing Writer
By Greg Hack
Death is revenge
It seems likely that one day soon, a . . . it will be escorted up several steps to a platform, a nose will be draped around his head, and the floor underneath him will drop.
JUSTICE WILL have been delivered, some will say. This man will have been sent to the gallows because he committed a robbery with a gun, murdered someone—possibly a kidnap victim—or led a terrorist group in a bizarre crime.
He will fall several feet before the noose tightens and the weight of his own body crashes.
or maybe he didn't do anything at all—except pick a bad lawyer.
DEATH, ANY man's death, including a convicted rapist' or a homicidal murdoch.
The idea behind capital punishment offends me almost as much as people who scream for a return to the electric chair, the number and maybe also the firing squad.
One knows for sure that punishment stops a man from committing a
murder while passion, not reason, controls his mind.
NO ONE knows for sure that a man won't be wittingly another man, although he knew the other man.
In the history of mankind, there is no more usual punishment than capital punishment. But there is no more final and死刑 punishment than the gas chamber.
And what justice will have been served by the condemned man's life? His victim won't be brought back to life. The only results of this man's death will be a satisfiedurgue for forgiving him, because feeling that the streets are safer to walk because one criminal has been put away.
TRADITIONALLY, the death penalty has been used to execute men opposed to the state, such as Jesus Christ, Socrates, Peter and Paul.
If the death penalty is reinusted, it can be abused again, abused the way some think it was when Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1933. No amount of work by their sons to clear the Rosenberg name will ever bring them back to life.
of course, the minimum times being proposed, contingent on good performance by the inmate.
Capital punishment is immoral, cruel, unmerecful and primitive. It isn't the solution to terrorism, murder or kidnaping.
Contributing Writer
Such a system would help society keep track, for 10 years, of one who had committed a violent crime. Yet the criminal would spend only three of those years in prison.
BECAUSE OF this, sentences for nonviolent crimes should be restricted to two years. More than two years in prison probably makes it very hard to adjust to the outside world.
Those sentenced for violent crimes for the first or second time should be evaluated by a board comprising psychiatrists and social workers, the prisoner's cell block captain, and those he works for, such as his shop foreman or teacher. They should evaluate him at least twice a year and should receive regular checks on what he needs to do or progress
But just getting out of prison isn't enough. Even more and better education in prisons won't help unless we change the exec. to be branded for life, barred by law from many jobs.
THE PRISONER should be eligible to leave prison after three years and go to a halfway house. Two years in a halfway house will allow the five-year parole, followed by complete freedom. These are,
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AN EX-CON can never become a doctor, lawyer, CPA, registered nurse, pharmacist, insurance broker or agent, real estate broker or, in most areas, a teacher. He can't work in 98 per cent of the places where he works, and that rules out banks, finalists, department stores and chain groceries.
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He can't work where alcoholic beverages are sold, and that rules out many hotels restaurants and grocery stores. He can't get a government eliminating many of the better factory jobs, and he cann't work at most Civil Service jobs.
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If we really believe in rehabilitation, and it makes sense to do so, it is time to get more prisoners out of prison sooner, and to give them a chance to prove they really懂法律. If these prisoners show that, they shouldn't be hampered by laws that give criminals little choice but to return to crime.
Mat
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