WE HAVE TOO MANY LAWS, RULES, REGULATIONS AND LOOPHOLES

To the Editor:

I thoroughly agree with Patrick Buchanan in the April 16 edition, "Justice brings return of vigilante." Though I abhor violence and teach my 12-year-old daughter there are ways to deal with disagreements other than physical violence, there is a time when enough is enough.

If I were faced with a situation of someone harming anyone close to me, I would fight back and even kill. Our justice system is becoming a laughingstock to our society and the good citizens it is supposed to protect. It is the average law abiding citizen who has hardly any rights. The criminal has all the rights. Criminals are not afraid of the legal system. It takes months before they go to trial, after all the psychological tests, preliminary hearings, pre-trial motions, changes of venue and whatever else the lawyers and courts come up with. It is no wonder more citizens are taking matters into their own hands and society is starting to condone it.

Justice should be swift, but it is not.

There are many of us who believe those who brutally murder, as we have seen in our community, deserve death themselves. But, would it be swift? No. They would sit on death row for years executing their right for automatic appeals, as we pay for it. Do the victims these criminals brutally kill get another chance? Can the victims' families truly rest?

I have little confidence in our legal system, from minor day-to-day cases to murder. It is the hard-working, law-abiding citizen who becomes the victim and loser.

Last year, I had the "pleasure" of using our legal system to remove tenants who were not paying rent, were destroying my house, and took some of my property. It took three months to get them out of the house. They were ordered to pay back rent and a small portion of my legal fees. There was no order for payment of damages or to return the stolen property. I felt this was a slap on the wrist. They moved to another state, filed bankruptcy and I did not collect one penny, nor can I attempt to collect or I will be served a summons.

There is rarely true justice through our legal system, but at present it is all we have and I have been told it is the best in the world. But there is a trend all over our country of the average citizen taking justice into his or her own hands and being looked upon as a hero and defender of their property and family. Patrick Buchanan called it "frontier justice." I call it running scared with deep frustration and pain in a society raped by violence and disregard for human life.

Our legal system needs to take a hard look at itself and laws changed so the victims and their families have more rights than the criminals. Until that happens, those who break the law will laugh at us who try to abide by it, for they have nothing to lose. Or, maybe, we have too many laws, rules, regulations and loopholes.

Betty McCart

Cape Girardeau