Letter: Outlaws have nothing on today’s crooks

Sunday, July 15, 2007 | 2:30 a.m.

In the wild days of the Old West, the likes of the James, Dalton and Younger gangs, as well as Black Bart, Luke Short and others, terrorized and robbed banks, stagecoaches and trains with wanton abandon.

In our modern society, we have smooth-talking, law-trained politicians and slick-operating corporate CEOs with MBA degrees who plunder the wealth of the public treasury and national corporations. The modern crooks wear expensive custom-tailored business suits and sport laptop computers and cell phones instead of masks, rain slickers, pistols and shotguns.

In the Old West, outlaws attempted to remain anonymous behind masks and hoods, while modern crooks openly ply their slick ways of robbing and cheating the public with unashamed openness.

They lavish wealth upon themselves from government entities and national corporations while promoting their own generous health and retirement benefits as rewards for alleged efforts they have put forth for the public. They deny the public they serve modest benefits that they freely lavish upon themselves.

I frankly prefer the outlaws of the past over the methods employed by modern scoundrels occupying government offices or heading national and public corporations. In a word, they make the crooks of the past look like innocent children stealing an occasional cookie from mother's cupboard.

Virgil A. Sestini, Las Vegas