Bruins’ Putting Players Above Students Setting a Very Poor Example

As a longtime Southern California sports fan, I was appalled at the lenient penalties given to Bruce Walker and Jamir Miller by UCLA.

The inappropriateness of the action taken by UCLA only serves to reinforce to young men that athletic programs and game attendance are more important than dealing in a firm manner with antisocial, criminal behavior. Jamir Miller’s excuse that he wasn’t involved directly, but that the stolen property was stored in his apartment, is akin to saying that he was an accomplice to murder but didn’t pull the trigger.

No rational person will ever believe that UCLA would have meted out similar penalties to non-athletes who were involved in the theft of property from fellow UCLA students.

Washington and UCLA have given the Pac-10 two black eyes.

PETER OLIPHANT

Costa Mesa

*

(A) 23-21-1 (record during the last four seasons) and a $900,000 athletic-department deficit dictates UCLA’s “discipline” of its athletes. Declining attendance and sparse TV exposure have created a fiscal mess that has put Terry Donahue and the administration on the hot seat.

To tarnish the integrity of the school for a single player is proof of the desperation within the program. The reality is that there are severe problems with the leadership of the program that was once a perennial top-20 contender.

STEVE PISARIK

Newport Beach

*

So Jamir Miller’s penalty for two misdemeanors is missing the UCLA-Cal game. Presumably, had the second arrest not occurred, he could have returned after halftime.

WES WELLMAN

Santa Monica