Letters to the editor

The Orange County grand jury investigated the beating death of an inmate in the county's jail and issued a report. In a series of articles, The Times described how witnesses lied to the grand jury and fabricated evidence -- the technical term for which is perjury. The technical term for fabricating evidence presented to a grand jury is obstruction of justice. Both are felonies. When will we see criminal charges brought against the perjurers and obstructors of justice?

David E. Ross

Oak Park, Calif.



Re "Rampant abuse seen at O.C. jail," April 8

I am appalled at the dehumanizing behavior, which was every bit as inhumane as the reports regarding the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay. The behavior certainly does not reflect the values that I have come to know as being representative of our society.

I can only hope that those directly involved, as well as those in the Orange County Sheriff's Department who tried to withhold this information from becoming public, will receive the appropriate consequences.

Karl Strandberg

Long Beach

Great Park or greater fiasco?

Re "Irvine's Great Park hasn't exactly earned its name," April 12

I read with a great deal of shock your story about the lack of progress on the Great Park at El Toro Marine base. I was shocked that anyone really believed that the park would happen in the first place. I also was shocked that the shortsighted attitude of the people in south Orange County deprived us of a badly needed international airport. We can look forward to years of idle property and further hopeless congestion in airports throughout Southern California.

Arthur Friedman

Newport Beach



The Great Park fiasco should be a warning to local officials nationwide of the danger of funding public/private projects with bonds to be repaid by the value generated by new homes or rentals over 20 years or more. The American 20th century experience was an anomaly and should be treated by governments and builders as such. The environmental factors that are assumed to underpin bonds for the Great Park project are no longer operative.

Orange County is lucky to have a second chance at rethinking this project. I hope that it, and local officials nationwide, will seriously consider what kind of dwellings will be desirable to live in 20 years from now, while we still have abundant energy to do so.

Danila Oder

Los Angeles

U.S. is on the same road as Italy

Re "Another stained ballot for the Italians," April 13

This article's description of the political situation in Italy illustrates, unfortunately, a road map the United States is following. Unless we can somehow elect legislators who are more interested in the welfare of the country than in increasing their salaries and, above all, assuring their own reelection, the United States is heading down the same sad path.

James E. Owens

La Cañada Flintridge

Doctors are treated differently

Re "Doctors got off lighter in records case," April 12

UCLA isn't the only one that treats doctors differently from other professionals, such as nurses. The Times seems to make a point of always printing the MD after a physician's name in letters to the editor, but you are less diligent about placing the RN after a nurse's name.

Is UCLA wrong in handling doctors differently from other healthcare workers? Without a doubt. Almost any nurse can regale you with firsthand experiences of this disparate treatment. However, The Times' editors display a similar bias. Perhaps your paper can set an example.

Chris Edwards

Pasadena



State regulators say they take medical record snooping seriously. But as The Times previously reported, this has been recurring for more than 10 years. So apparently, like the medical board, the state Department of Public Health also refuses to enforce discipline against physicians. Nonetheless, these being illegal violations of privacy, should not the district attorney get involved?

Richard Baker

Beverly Hills

Anger over minister's remarks

Re "Allegations in e-mail split Jews and blacks," April 12

When radio DJ Don Imus made a horrid, racist remark, reaction was swift and his punishment was appropriate, even though he issued an apology. Where is the outrage or the reaction from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference over the Rev. Eric Lee's remarks? What he allegedly said was worse than what Imus said.

This man should be fired. There is too much hate in the world already.

John Kane

Northridge



During this volatile Democratic primary campaign, this incendiary report obviously feeds and exploits strong, conflicting emotions -- not only in supporters of both candidates but particularly between the African American and Jewish communities. It is therefore most disconcerting that The Times did so little research on Daphna Ziman, who, along with her husband, is a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Had The Times done easily obtained research, Ziman's political bias would have been revealed and this tempest cooled.

Ruth Caper

Cheviot Hills

The mayor needs batting practice

Re "Mayor focuses on crime," April 15

It's been years since I coached, but I have some free advice for L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa: Your batting average will never improve if you continue to just swing for the fences. Villaraigosa has started so many wild initiatives that The Times would need to print a two-page table just to squeeze in the highlights. The travel commitments alone would stagger a normal man, including his campaign swings for Sen. Hillary Clinton. Stay around for a change and finish something. And while you're at it, take the shackles off the L.A. Police Department, reverse Special Order 40 and start exporting illegal alien gang members back to the lands of their birth instead of letting them infest large swaths of the city. As for me, I'd rather be able to do my errands in safety in 18th Street Gang territory than park under one of the mayor's million trees while getting mugged.

Gary R. Albin

Long Beach

Naive approach to the judiciary

Re "Bench mark," editorial, April 12

The Times' call for an end to partisan fighting over judicial appointments is noble but naive. Interpretation of law is always, and unavoidably, subjective because of the nature of giving meaning to texts. The judge's personal and political values always, unavoidably, play a role. A study of all federal court decisions under the National Environmental Policy Act during 2001-2004, for example, revealed that environmentalists won 60% of the time with district judges appointed by a Democratic president but 28% of the time with judges appointed by a Republican. They won only 17% of the time with judges appointed by George W. Bush. Therefore, partisan blockage of judicial nominees in the Senate is entirely proper because we have few other ways to keep these black-robed policymakers accountable to the citizenry.

Robert Benson

Professor of Law

Loyola Law School

Los Angeles



Economic ties in U.S. politics

Re "China enters the race," April 13

This article on former President Clinton accepting donations and travel expenses from the Chinese Internet company Alibaba shows the success of China's government in buying friends and influence in the United States. It is disingenuous for a former president to claim ignorance in that he was unaware of Shi Tao's imprisonment when such a case had been widely reported in the media.

Clinton should follow the example set by Yahoo in its legal settlement with Shi Tao's family by pressing for the release of his and other Internet writers sentenced to jail for posting articles on the Internet.

Ann Lau

Torrance



Why didn't this article mention Dick Cheney and the Bush family's close ties with the Saudi royal family, which is more oppressive than the Chinese government? What about all the oil industry ties that do business with brutal dictators? You really need to be more complete in your coverage. Why is it a conflict of interest for one but not the other? I think being balanced would mean a mention, at least briefly, of the fact that we have people in power who are aligned or do business with bad people already.

Howie Goldfarb

Sherman Oaks