Letter: Sniper story made for TV

Monday, Nov. 4, 2002 | 8:37 a.m.

The sniper story was the best thing for television since 9-11. A bevy of bobble-headed beauties from all the networks camped out "on the scene" to bring us every exciting moment.

The World Series was a ratings flop, but violence, fear and anger sell fast cars and purple pills. The same trio sells in politics, too. Tough on terrorism, Saddam and crime get you elected.

The state and federal politicians are in a war to see who gets to kill the snipers, though John Malvo may have to be tried separately in Virginia or Alabama, where they permit the execution of kids. Capital punishment models violence and continues the cycle. That is one of the reasons that we had 11,000 murders in this country last year while the rest of the democracies in the world had about 500 in total.

Other civilized societies have done away with the death penalty and have shown economic responsibility toward their poor. Is it a secret that when the economy goes down our crime rate goes up?

Maybe politicians and corporations don't care about making our society less violent. Where's the profit in that? Already the media is getting ready for on-the-scene coverage of the sniper trials and the executions. Maybe they'll be sponsored by home security systems.

JERRY BITTS

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