Anti-Graffiti Paddling Bill

I couldn’t believe what I was reading! Mickey Conroy’s (R-Orange) revolting bill ordering that juvenile graffiti offenders be beaten with a paddle has passed its first Assembly committee hearing (June 29). What sort of mixed messages does this state wish to proclaim? The youth of today experience more violence than they can handle, whether through gang activity, parental mistreatment, or media overload. Now we want to teach these already-troubled youngsters that physical abuse is an effective solution for a social problem.

Grow up, California Assembly members! Have the foresight to see how this bill will affect your children, and the good judgment to create responsible, productive legislation. We and our children deserve a government that has the courage to educate with respect, not threaten with brutality.

RACHEL JACOBS

Irvine

* It might sound like a cruel resolution to an epidemic problem. But since most graffiti vandals are under the age of 18, doing time at California Youth Authority facilities brings them back out with more revenge on our city walls. Paddling as punishment in front of peers and community might act as a lesson in humility and a deterrent to an otherwise very expensive crime. As for the ACLU, I’m sure they will be more than happy to paint over every square inch of the defaced property found throughout all of California.

CECILE WOLFE

Los Angeles

* Why, I wonder, does Conroy want to limit his paddling bill to graffiti? And why just juveniles? If paddling would be an effective deterrent to graffiti, why not to car theft? Assault? How about white-collar crime?

If a few whacks on the rear end are appropriate for the kid from Ohio who may or may not have spray-painted the cars in Singapore, if they would shape up the graffiti “artists” of California, why not apply the same measures to tax cheats, deadbeat parents, parking scofflaws, politicians on the take? Girls as well as boys? Women as well as men? Why not?

I am not sure I would like to live in a paddle-happy society, but if I had to, I would want everyone to have an equal shot at a sore butt.

And, yeah, print their names in the paper. A chance at public humiliation.

BOB BRIGHAM

Manhattan Beach

* Conroy has some strong points in favor of paddling young graffiti vandals. But they seem to come from the “good old days,” when “men were men and they fought hard for what was right.” I would like Conroy to show me any place in history where using violence to fight violence didn’t, in the long run, create more violence. If it had worked, then why is there so much violence all over the world today?

I felt the comments by Irwin Hyman, Temple University psychology professor, were very astute (June 23). But be careful, he’s one of those touchy-feely people. He belongs to a rapidly increasing portion of the world population that is becoming aware of another way to see themselves and the world around them.

As more humans experience that their worth and power are complete within themselves, then they will have no need to try and take them away from someone else. As this awareness spreads we will work together in ways beyond our present imagination.

R. DAVID McCLELLAND

Huntington Beach

* A few years ago I attended my 40-year high school reunion. One of our guests was our principal at that time. Several of the men recalled the “swats” they’d received from the principal as punishment for various misdemeanors. They were not complaining about being mistreated. On the contrary, they were complaining that not enough, if any, of this type of discipline was being applied today.

Last month, I attended another alumni function, a men’s golf tournament, which included two former coaches as guests. The committee chairman had made two paddles--with holes--which were presented to the coaches. It was done with nostalgic humor and with gratitude for the “firm hand” with which they had disciplined those who had stepped out of line.

Now, we have Assemblyman Tom Bates, who thinks the idea or corporal punishment is “so extreme” (June 23). And Hyman, who fears that “paddling of juveniles could spread to the adult penal system and hence to the military, where the flogging of U.S. sailors on the high seas was practiced through the mid-1800s,” and that “corporal punishment can lead to embitterment, anger and post-traumatic stress . . . (in) impressionable youths.”

Oh, gee. We sure don’t want to do anything that would upset the kiddies, do we. Gimme a break. All you have to do is compare the classrooms of yesterday and today, and the results of these two “schools of thought.”

JIM ALBERS

Glendale