Misplaced Priorities in Law Enforcement

* I read with chagrin and a sense of futility the article (“Yesterday’s News Is Still a Hot Item,” July 26) about pilferers of discarded newspaper in the West Valley.

My house in the Sunland area has been the target for the past several months of a group of neighborhood vandals. I have come home from work several times to find eggs and rotten fruit thrown against the walls and windows. I have had to paint over degrading and obscene words scrawled on the mailbox. Two days before Christmas last year my car was spray-painted while parked on the street in front of the house; damage amounting to almost $1,000.

How did I deserve such treatment? Living a quiet, even unobtrusive life as a gay man in a working-class neighborhood. All of the above incidents were duly reported to the Los Angeles Police Department and to Councilman Joel Wachs’ office. The sum total of action taken by both agencies to date? Absolutely nothing.

Let it not be said that yesterday’s news is worthless. Apparently, the care and shelter of discarded and used-up newspapers is a higher priority than my safety and peace of mind. This is truly an amazing world.

STEVEN ACREE

Sunland