Carjacking and Causes

* While I sympathize with Gloria Romero and her daughter as a result of the tragedy they endured (“Carjacking Robs a Child’s Trust, and Much More,” Commentary, Sept. 24), I believe her ignorance of the crucial factor behind the criminal behavior--the lack of personal responsibility--skews her proposal for eliminating the criminal threat. By suggesting that society is to blame because of its failure to deliver even more government handouts, Romero and others like her encourage criminal behavior by undermining the sanction society imposes on the criminally and morally culpable.

It is time to abandon the failed notion that society can bribe its recalcitrant members into respecting the law and the rights of others. The answer is not to extend the welfare state, but rather for society to demand a greater degree of personal responsibility from its members.

KENNETH D. DeGIORGIO

Los Angeles

* Gloria Romero and her 9-year-old daughter have undergone a traumatic event that will, no doubt, haunt them forever. While I can offer condolences that it occurred, I am yet outraged at Romero’s cavalier conclusion. Ending a dramatic recitation, Romero insists she and her little girl were robbed at gunpoint because society failed to cough up enough money for housing, health care, jobs and schooling.

Excuse me?

Such tired liberal cliches fly in the face of all logic and evidence. Society had nothing to do with her carjacking. It happened solely because one sociopath decided that his needs outweighed the lives and rights of his victims.

Would somebody explain to Professor Romero that crime has almost nothing to do with liberal “do-good” programs, and almost everything to do with personal responsibility. Instead of teaching school children about moral accountability, we mouth tired platitudes about society’s alleged failure to throw more money at problems.

Therein lies society’s real failure.

CHARLES MARQUISS

Highland