Criminals

I looked for--and failed to find--a critical note in your report (March 27) of Wall Street executives’ outrage at the way arresting officials treated a few of their peculating fellows recently--leading them away “like hapless tellers in a garden-variety embezzlement.” The law had dared handcuff “respected members of the financial community.”

Respected members, indeed! Our legal system treats white collar criminals (and suspects) too gently as it is. Our society refuses to disclose the names of “good” members of the Dallas community who paid off Southern Methodist University football players, and it wouldn’t want to confuse the millionaire looking for a few extra hundred thousand with the street-type who breaks glass looking for a supplement to poverty-line wages or a welfare handout, or to stave off hunger.

These “respected members” ought to be pilloried, the lot of them, right in the middle of Wall Street (or Dallas, or Main Street, America) as an appropriate first phase when sentenced. We could never locate all their money: let’s try shame.

ROGER M. LYDON

Santa Maria