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- LETTERS, Page 17Central Park Gang Rape
-
- Your "Wilding in the Night," describing the attack on a
- young female jogger in Central Park (NATION, May 8), filled me
- with anger, rage and disgust. How long must law-abiding citizens
- endure the litany of excuses made as justification for acts of
- murder, rape and child abuse? Each person should be held
- responsible for his or her actions.
-
- Zeke Loretto Antioch, Calif.
-
- Charles Krauthammer's passionate response to the Central
- Park "wilding" attack is understandable. But I am disturbed by
- his refusal to accept the possibility of any broader cause
- behind the attackers' moral anomie. He claims it is not economic
- deprivation, it is not social frustration, it is not political
- cynicism, it is not even psychological rage. It is, says
- Krauthammer, mere anarchy, by which he means an "excess of
- freedom." An excess of freedom! These boys stalked an innocent,
- unarmed woman, a stranger, beat her with rocks and lead pipes,
- raped her and left her to die . . . merely because they were
- free to do so? This explanation is more chilling than the crime
- itself.
-
- Jeff Ewener Toronto
-
- As a 29-year-old black woman, I am enraged by the attack on
- the jogger in Central Park. This woman was not the victim of a
- few "misunderstood youths" but the prey of evil animals. Racism
- does exist, but it cannot be blamed for wilding or drug abuse
- or teenage pregnancy. Why don't these gang members use their
- brains to build for the future?
-
- Cheryl A. Tunstall Century City, Calif.
-