Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-08-20
LETTERS TO THE STAR
How to Curb WOLVES, oyerunninq Our AspkoIt Jungle?

It Is unfortunate that only
an assault on O prominent
person arouses public indig-
nation and realization that
the streets of Washington are
more dangerous at night
than O jungle with all its
wild animals and savages.
This high feeling Is usually
very short lived and SUBJ
sides, while street robberies.
muggings and other assaults
on ordinary peaceful citizens,
foolish enough to be alone on
the streets Of Washington
after dark. continue to occur
every night. until again some
prominent name appears
among the victims. Between
these occurrences there Is q
lot Of talk about discrimina-
ton. indignation and home
rule. No one dares to mem
ton the. fact that about 90
per cent of these outrages
are committed by young COLI
ored people. that they are
the ones who 50 effectively
turned washington into a
ghost town after dark. and
they are the ones who should
be tanned to protect the peo-
pie and be prevented from
disgracing their own race.
These youngsters are COM
parable to wild animals. and
most young wild animals can
be tanned. but not by letting
them roam among defense-
less people. There arr other
methods to accomplish this,
and 1t seems that IL Is the
duty of an organization like
the National Association for
the Advancement Of Colored
People to direct its efforts to
this problem. So far the
NAACP is trying to blunder
its way through school inte-
grafton, doing absolutely
nothing to prove that It's
people deserve 1t, or to pro-
mote the advancements in
other respects. Perhaps. If it
could show some results in
other directions, its struggle
for school indignation would
be more successful.
James s. Sweet.
4 80
Your August IS editorial.
wolves in the Streets" as
sumes that police can control
crime, when. in fact, they
can only suppress it from
time to time.
Crime control requires the
: efforts Of the whole COM
munity. None Of our large
cities, including the Nations
Capital, has ever really met
the challenge Of community
responsibility in dealing with
the problem.
Now 1t Is bursting out in
Washington and other cities.
Behind it all is the terrific
/ growth of urban population
coupled with the traditional
fallacy of relying almost ex-
clusively on the police and
the punishment system Of our
penitentiaries. It's q noto-
rious system for breeding
hardened criminals.
One reason the community
fails to 60 beyond police
nightstick" philosophy is be-
because Negroes figure in
crime far out Of proportion
to their numbers In the popu-
lation; thus the problem be-
comes q Negro problem. "
Witness the often repeated
cry, "Why don't you Negroes
do something about the crime
in your community"
Well-meaning whites fire.
quently take this bromide.
Others use 1t as a priced
possession to stigmatize the
overwhelming majority Of
law-abiding Negroes for the
behavior Of the comparatively
few.
District Juvenile Court has
q monster backlog Of cases be-
cause one Judge can't handle
the load. There isn't another
Judge for the simple reason
that Representative Davis Of
Georgia felt that the Presi-
dent in all fairness would
appoint o Negro as the second
judge on the juvenile bench,
Mr.. Davis wouldn't stand for
it. My source Of informa-
ton is The Evening Star.
Another drawback is the
all too common belief among
whites that Negro leaders
real and fancied. can and
should control crime among
Negroes.
In our mobile and class
conscious society, the aver
age Negro leader is as fal
removed from the Average
perpetrator Of crime as Ii
the average white who har.
bors this age-old misconcep.
4