Letters: Violent crime | High-speed losses | Provoking liberals | Worst instincts
East Bay Times Letters to the Editor for Jan. 7, 2024
Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.
Increase penalties
for violent crimes
Re: “Cop murder suspect has killed before” (Page A1, Jan. 4) and “Fourth suspect arrested in probe” (Page A1, Jan. 5).
Just these two articles suggest that we could save many lives and reduce crime without spending any money for more police by keeping dangerous people in jail (which includes all the cops who commit crimes and get away with it).
There is an easy solution: increase by five times the sentences for people who commit violent crimes or property crimes with a gun. Why don’t politicians do it?
We’re stuck in this nonsense choice between fighting crime by adding cops and incarcerating homeless and addicted people or pursuing justice reform by keeping actually dangerous people out.
Roberto Garuti
Walnut Creek
State should cut losses
on high-speed rail
Re: “Let’s make California’s high-speed rail work” (Page A9, Dec. 31).
George Skelton says now that Gov. Newsom has squandered $11 billion of taxpayer money on the infamous bullet train to nowhere, we must squander another $100 billion or more to finish it.
The California bullet train is costing so much to build that no one will be able to afford the tickets without higher taxes to subsidize the train. The money would be far better spent improving the decrepit highways that connect the towns in the valley.
Skelton’s comment that California can’t afford the train by itself so the money will have to come from the federal government is naïve — all that federal money comes from us taxpayers.
It’s time to stop the insanity, cut our losses and stop all work on the bullet train. What’s been built to date can stand as a monument to the arrogance and stupidity of Newsom and his cronies.
Dick Patterson
El Cerrito
Are conservatives trying
to provoke liberals?
I saw a Washington Post-UMD poll indicating that a quarter of Americans think the FBI organized the Jan. 6 riot. I think that some people will just accept whatever nonsense the right-wing media belches out, no matter how ridiculous. I have a theory as to why.
Remember President Obama’s “birth certificate controversy”? Millions of people said that they believed that he was born in Kenya, even though only an imbecile could reason it out and come to that conclusion. My theory is, in both of these cases, these people don’t actually believe this rubbish, but it’s fun to say it and watch liberals (like me) react when they do.
Jim Peterson
Walnut Creek