‘Mom and Pop’ Shops and Crime Prevention

I want to thank Voices and Noel Anenberg for “Unfairly Drafted in the War on Crime” (Gripe, June 3). As a longtime loyal customer of Orville’s Original Donuts, the store Anenberg apparently referred to, and as a lawyer who over the last 15 months has tried to help them and other minority “Moms and Pops,” I have become totally disillusioned with the manner in which our city officials operate--their blatant violations of due process and total disregard for the civil rights of honest, hard-working, “tax and fee-paying” Los Angeles business operators and property owners--all in the guise of controlling crime.

Our city officials callously label legitimate businesses “public nuisances” and “magnets for crime” instead of taking responsibility and putting the blame where it properly belongs--on themselves.

HARRIET K. BILFORD

Van Nuys