Pumpkin Theft Is No High Crime

* Like Will Rogers, all I know is what I read in the papers. Letters in the Oct. 31 Times that seemed to justify the shooting of Brandon Ketsdever by Pete Solomona saddened me. They made me wonder how much value to place on property, no matter how minuscule. Both of the individuals involved have been identified as decent human beings.

No one justifies theft, but there are gradations of seriousness of thefts. In a time when we debate imposing the death penalty, I think that even proponents would want it reserved for heinous crimes such as rape and murder.

Instead of trying to assess degrees of blame, we should have some compassion for the families of those involved. Two families have been irreparably damaged. Brandon Ketsdever paid a high price for his actions. We cannot want a similar price for Pete Solomona, but we should hope that he is assessed more than a reprimand and a few weeks of community service.

RAY BRACY

Tustin

* To those who think that stealing a plastic pumpkin from a neighbor’s yard deserves the death penalty: Stop a minute and think back to your teen years.

Did you never do anything dishonest or illegal for which you might now be ashamed? Swipe a candy bar from a grocery store, knock over garbage cans on Halloween, “borrow” a bike for a spin around the neighborhood?

Why do these kinds of pranks, admittedly wrong and to be condemned, generate such anger, to the point of approving killing as a solution?

Did becoming an adult alter your perspective that drastically?

The theft in question would have been dealt with by the authorities had not Solomona chosen to close the case with a gun.

CAROL HAMLIN

Irvine