Parents must take responsibility

I appreciate the follow-up story by Veronica Rocha about the Halloween night car crash (“Teen’s joyride ends in wreck, police say,” Dec. 10).

Too often, we never hear any details after the day of a story. (This story concerns a violent crash of a Mercedes SUV into four parked cars on Maryland Avenue, after which the driver ran away.)

The story reports that the police traced the ownership of the Mercedes and discovered that it had been taken by a 15-year old child of the family that owned it.

What about parental responsibility? If a 15-year-old takes a car and crashes it, and runs away, a child might be forgiven for fleeing and not taking responsibility. However, the adults in the family could, and should, report immediately to the police and force the child to face the consequences.

For all the parents knew, there could have been serious injuries; the child ran away without showing any remorse for the act.

Michael E. McGinley

La Crescenta

Let’s spread this bag ban around

The vote to ban plastic shopping bags in markets in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County by supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky, Gloria Molina and Mark Ridley-Thomas will decrease pollution and save consumers money.

Each market pays for these bags and includes this expense in the prices paid by everyone who shops at the store, including those who bring reusable bags. If more people bring their own bags, the store will buy fewer bags, and can either pocket that savings or offer slightly lower prices.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich was the lone vote for continuing the practice for all shoppers to share the cost of these wasteful bags. His explanation of his vote (“Bag ban puts too much burden on consumer,” Nov. 23) defies common sense.

He wrote this ban “increases costs” and “the mandated 10-cent per-bag charge represents a new tax on the consumer.” Among the many points he managed to include — a time of economic uncertainty; people who don’t have jobs; education to ensure that these bags don’t end up on our beaches, rivers, parks and landfills; Big Brother — his letter left out the rather important concept that shoppers don’t have to pay this so-called tax if they simply bring their own bags.

Shoppers in Glendale are still subsidizing the cost of bags for those who don’t bring their own. The Glendale City Council should pass a similar ban.

Nancy Burnet Kent

Glendale