Crime Mounts and One Man Says, ‘No More’ : Argentina: Victim of auto burglary gives chase, kills two thieves. He is freed as ‘non-indictable’ because he acted while in a state of emotional distress.

Crime has tripled, muggers walk free, anger grows in tandem with fear, and Horacio Santos, who chased down and killed two thieves because he couldn’t take any more, has become the symbol of it all.

The Santos case jarred many of the 10 million people in Buenos Aires, who felt safe in their city until the last few years.

Historians, sociologists, judges, police, government officials, newspaper vendors and nearly everyone else express opinions about the case at cocktail parties, in letters to editors, on street corners and radio talk shows.

One Saturday morning in June, Santos, a 42-year-old engineer, heard glass breaking outside his home and recognized the sound of his car alarm. He rushed to a window and saw two men, laughing, walk off to their own car with his tape deck.

Santos’ home had been burglarized twice and thieves had broken into his car 14 times. Overwhelmed by anger, he gave chase.

When Santos caught up to the thieves on the road, he shot one in the head and the other in the throat. Two bullets, two men dead.

He was arrested on homicide charges and confined in a hospital for psychiatric tests. His wife, Norma, said: “I can’t believe what happened. Horacio can’t either. This is a nightmare.”

Soon thereafter, Judge Luis Cevasco ruled that Santos was “non-indictable” because he acted while in a state of emotional distress.

The men Santos killed were not career criminals. One was a 31-year-old bus driver and the other, 29, worked in a butcher shop. Both had wives and children.

As Argentina’s economic recession has shrunk real wages and increased unemployment, more people have turned to crime.

Did Horacio Santos do the right thing?

“I would have done the same, may God forgive me,” said Bernardo Neustadt, Argentina’s most popular news commentator.

Mariano Grondona, host of the television program “Key Hour,” said: “About 99% of the calls to my program were in favor of Santos’ reaction.”

Jorge Luis Passero, chief of the federal police, said Santos “can’t be taken as an example” for others because “that would be going back to the law of the jungle.”

Robbery and assault have become commonplace in Buenos Aires. Crimes such as rape and murder are relatively rare, but some highly publicized cases of violence make people feel vulnerable.

In mid-June, two days before the Santos shooting, a businessman who had identified a mugger in a police lineup was shot and killed after the alleged assailant was released.

Two months ago, men brandishing a machine gun tried to force investment broker Esteban Reynal off the main highway north of the city as he drove to his weekend home. He accelerated and outran them.

Earlier this year, a judge’s home was bombed and gunmen shot up the car of another. The second magistrate, Luis Cevasco, blamed “parapolice groups” that were trying to influence cases.

“The worst thing is that it’s not just criminals, but also the forces of security” who commit crimes, said Reynal, who recognized one of his assailants in the police station where he reported the shooting. The provincial policeman was arrested.

In July, three policemen who offered to free a jailed person in exchange for a computer were sentenced to jail. A judge has been accused of trying to extort $500,000 from a medical clinic in return for dropping charges the clinic claims the judge fabricated.

Corruption is a serious problem among police officers, who are paid the equivalent of only $100 a month and usually have second jobs.

According to official statistics, the number of crimes in Buenos Aires province was 122,000 last year, compared to 47,000 in 1985. Argentines are increasingly careful about what they wear, where they go and how they get there.

Months ago, Santos and his neighbors organized teams to watch homes and cars. Private security guards patrol wealthy communities.

Residents in the zone of weekend homes and country clubs along Rio de la Plata are buying guard dogs, electric gates and handguns, and chipping in to provide the police with better cars and equipment.

Buenos Aires province has announced plans to transfer more officers to street duty and hire 2,000 new ones.

Police acknowledge that crime is increasing but claim it isn’t out of control. Most of the offenses are muggings and thefts from cars and homes. Street gangs and drug peddling, like major violent crimes, are uncommon.

Chief Passero said that the conviction rate is low because of reforms in the penal code made in 1984, when civilian democracy returned after nearly eight years of military dictatorship.

Each 100 arrests result in only 2.6 convictions and half of those get off without jail terms, he said.