Criminals and Voting
* Re “Make Sure That All the People Have the Right to Vote,” Ventura County Perspective, Nov. 5.
How very odd that your contributor faults our system of withholding the right to vote from those who deliberately show their contempt for our society. How very reasonable for the court to take away a civic right from those who refuse to abide by the rules laid down by the loyal, law-abiding, voting citizenry.
In his plea for forgiveness for the lawbreaker, your writer tries to defend the most common offenders with:
“Drug sweeps often target minorities with racial profiling, the result being that young African American males are becoming disenfranchised at five times the rate of their white peers. Hispanic citizens, also targeted by these skews in law enforcement and criminal justice sentencing, are also disproportionately disenfranchised from the vote.”
Does he really object to the law enforcement effort to interrogate the most likely offenders? Some call it racial profiling; we call it observing the statistical probabilities. The minority populace could change the statistics if they were serious in their want. Why don’t they?
Does your writer really believe I feel guilty because the convicted perpetrator of a felony does not join me in the voting decision as to “who will rule and how?” Amazing!
T. BRUCE GRAHAM
Port Hueneme
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