Looking at a Woe-Soaked ‘95, We Wish Mightily in 1996 : At the top of our list: a better criminal justice system in L.A.

We have a wish list for 1996. Its potential for reality is diminished only by the frailties in the resolve of all of us in Southern California. This can be the year, for example, in which Angelenos realize that we really do get only what we pay for in terms of a criminal justice system.

Los Angeles has a crime lab that has become an embarrassment; courts so crowded and confused that they may have allowed a suspected serial killer to slip through the cracks; a jail system so poorly run that it allowed two suspected killers to get out of confinement, and then out of the country; old and overcrowded police stations, too little new equipment and too few officers. Cute blue ribbons worn in support of the police won’t do it. Loosening governmental and personal purse strings will.

We also hope that the city and the county finally will root out those in law enforcement who are not up to the job. They make life unfairly tough for the good officers and law-abiding residents.

A FEW WORDS FOR THE MAYOR: We want Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and his staff to appreciate that the mayor can’t accomplish much in this city without the broad support of the City Council. So better communication is required. We’d also like Riordan to pay more than lip service to a strong and independent city Ethics Commission.

We want the City Council to realize that to keep doing things the same old way just because it’s easier is no substitute for leadership. We want to see Councilwomen Jackie Goldberg, Ruth Galanter, Laura Chick and Rita Walters, and all city councilmen of goodwill toward women, push for serious ethical oversight that will discourage, shame and punish top city officials who harass women. We want Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas and Rep. Maxine Waters to end their petty political squabble and start working together again on behalf of their constituents.

We’d like a much better year from Police Chief Willie L. Williams.

We’d like a Los Angeles Unified School District that meets the needs of all students.

We’d like a mass transit system that actually takes people where they want to go.

And the next time something violent happens to a Southern California child, we want to see everyone in the region’s leadership raise a ruckus. Base the reaction on the fact that a child has been hurt--not on which side of the freeway the child lives, what color the child is, whether the parents are high school dropouts or lawyers.

We want Orange County to realize its ambition of getting out of bankruptcy by the summer. In so doing, residents should not be swayed by the demands of ideologues for the dismantling of government. We also want significant progress in overcoming the political impasse in planning for the future of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

We want the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to shore up its shaky relationship with Sacramento, which, like it or not, controls much of the county’s purse strings. (Note to local television news directors: Sacramento is the capital of California. There’s important news there that you really ought to be covering, although we admit reporting on state government doesn’t lend itself to live shots of murder scenes.)

SACRAMENTO SHAPE-UP: We want a state Legislature that behaves like one, rather than like a minimum security facility for all of the children who couldn’t get into the good summer camps. It can start with upgrades for education and infrastructure that will make California more attractive to new businesses. And we want support for the many good recommendations of the California Constitutional Revision Commission.

Nationally, we want an honest and calm discussion about bringing such entitlements as Social Security and Medicare in line with the public’s ability to pay for them.

We want a national presidential campaign that actually approaches real debate on issues.

We want credible immigration laws that keep the borders under control and respect the rights of legal, law-abiding immigrants.

Internationally, we want a Russia that won’t turn its back on its best chance in history to bolster representative government: its June presidential election. We want a peace agreement between Israel and Syria that could open a new chapter in regional affairs; in Bosnia, a safe completion of the NATO mission and an on-time withdrawal of the U.S. forces deployed there.

Back home, we want the California Angels to stifle their gag reflex in the next baseball pennant race. We want professional football in L.A., supportive fans and a team owner who doesn’t own a suitcase. Is that too much to ask?