One Road to the American Dream

Once again the emphasis is misplaced (“American Dream Can Lead to Crime,” Op-Ed, Dec. 22). Why do we usually hear about crime in connection with poor people?

In one month, Ivan Boesky paid $100,000,000 penalties and was sentenced to 3 years for insider trading. Michael Deaver was convicted of perjury and faces up to 15 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. Atty. Gen. Ed Meese is again under suspicion for underhanded dealings--just to mention a few such news items. The truth is that probably none of these men will ever spend time in prison, and none of them will be financially ruined. It seems to me a disgrace to only look at crimes from the bottom up (i.e., minorities, poor and immigrants, according to writer Rita Simon).

It makes me wonder, for instance, about the justice of handing out large sentences for liquor store holdups and welfare fraud and comparatively small sentences as enumerated above.

I would not deny that poor people commit crimes, but the chances of their beating the system pale by comparison to the rich, who seldom pay the price.

Why don’t we start reform from the top? But then, we never hear about welfare reform from the top down, do we?

JUDITH J. SMITH

Los Angeles