Letter: Gangs are like terrorists in our neighborhoods

Sunday, Aug. 20, 2006 | 7:43 a.m.

I've sadly got to agree with the sentiment about local crime expressed by Virgil A. Sestini in his Aug. 17 letter to the editor, "Our attention should be on the homefront."

For the first time in my life, the front door to my home was broken into and I was burglarized recently. It was nothing short of a violent act of terror.

Yet, the police are not able to do much, as their resources are being exhausted on violent crimes - we, obviously, need a great many more police, investigators and supporting staff to go after these neighborhood terrorists.

Had I been home, the crime would have been even more sad - as, most probably, there would be the body of a dead burglar to deal with, carpet to replace, cleaning costs - and I would be worrying about the lawsuit the criminal's family may be contemplating.

Our neighborhood has had a home invasion nearly every two weeks since June of this year - we're obviously being targeted by a gang. Yet no progress has been made and, sooner or later, it's clear someone is going to get seriously injured or killed.

We do need to reprioritize, hire and train more police (even if it means raising taxes a little and building a new police academy).

I now live in a state of fear I haven't known since I was in combat, in Vietnam! It's sad - veterans are coming home to a "war zone" - and too many of the civilians remain naive as to just how dangerous our local neighborhoods are quickly becoming!

The gangs are terrorists, especially those like MS-13 out of South America. Why are we not doing more to stop them and bring them to justice?

Johnathan L. Abbinett, Las Vegas