Corporal Punishment

Re Assemblyman Mickey Conroy’s proposal to implement corporal punishment in dealing with taggers (May 13):

This type of legislation is long overdue. Corporal punishment is not unconstitutional. It has been practiced in the U.S. in the past.

Compare Los Angeles to Singapore: L.A. has a horrible graffiti problem which is destroying our neighborhoods. Singapore is sparkling clean and graffiti-free. L.A.’s gangs and drug dealers are literally devastating inner-city areas of our community. In Singapore drug dealers are executed.

One system is working and one system is failing miserably. I encourage other legislators to support Conroy’s legislation to deal aggressively with the thugs and hooligans who have terrorized our city for too long.

GEOFFREY C. CHURCH

Los Angeles

Leave it to an Orange County Republican to turn to a fascist nation as a model for American justice. May I ask why Conroy did not turn to the democracy of Switzerland to find out how they manage to keep their streets spotless without beating people bloody? Or to the open societies of the Netherlands or Denmark for their secrets in keeping incidents of violent crime lower than Singapore’s?

Singapore tortured an American and spilled his blood because the paint on a Mercedes was temporarily blemished. Anyone in this country who supports that brutality is a traitor and a sadist. And that’s something I couldn’t publish if I lived in Singapore.

ANGELO FUNICELLI

Long Beach

Proposing caning as a form of punishment for criminals in the U.S.? Yeah. Butt it will hurt.

CONSTANCE BRENNER

Studio City