Mailbag

Who Hired Lopez and the Other Irresponsible DAs?

Who are these people? The Pima County Attorney's Office, specifically Barbara LaWall, is doing a terrible job of managing her crew, not to mention public perception of that crew ("The Murder of Dr. David Stidham," April 28). They sleep together, party together and cover up for one another. Do they have time to work together? How many signs and warnings did Lopez require from her volatile abusive fiancé, Bradley Schwartz, before he passed the "I'm gonna fucking get him. That fucking guy's gonna die" legal test?

A talented surgeon with a promising career and what appeared to be a storybook life is dead because an attorney with an unstable and reckless life didn't have the cerebral capacity to do what was right. One phone call. Obviously way too much effort for a woman who was so self absorbed and wrapped up in her own quagmire of shit just to cover her and her colleagues asses.

Schwartz's lying, infidelity, drug use and abusive behavior were enough for Dr. Stidham to see the writing on the wall and get out. But the woman who slept with him, fought with him and represented him claimed to think it was "impossible" for him to murder. Makes me wonder if she relishes this kind of behavior in men.

Please, on behalf of many concerned and law-abiding citizens in Pima County, someone tell us that the hiring manager for the county that recruited these clowns has been let go, and that help is on the way.

Hector G. Amado III


Renée Downing's Pro-Immigration Arguments Lack Common Sense

Our economy will collapse unless we accept every poor Mexican who wants to cross our border, use our emergency rooms and become a liability to the state of Arizona--I think it is ridiculous that this argument is advanced ("A Brief Know Your Border Quiz," Downing, April 21). Toilets won't get cleaned; crops will rot in the fields--how silly!

The northeastern states, who until recently did not know an illegal immigrant from a French chef, managed to pick their crops, clean their homes, send crops to market and see their taxes spent on their own needs. Don't they know their economy should collapse because only 1.2 million illegals are entering this country, and we need more? That is a specious argument. Let's have some common sense. In Phoenix at our food giveaway program at my church, we encountered many such illegal immigrants. One told me he was sleeping in the park. I actually saw others doing this. Immigrants lined up hoping to be picked up for a day job--literally dozens of them each day. This was near my home and did nothing for the valuation of the neighborhood. When job centers were built especially for these workers, many refused to use them. Where was this economy that so crucially needs them? Give me a break!

Jan Crawford


Downing and 'Jorge' Bush: Two Peas in a Pod

I don't buy into "liberal media bias," but your article makes me wonder if I'm wrong!

I'm a registered Democrat, so before you spew out names, let me ask if you've ever even lived along the border. I grew up in Chula Vista, Calif., and witnessed illegal immigration first-hand! I now am in Northern Virginia, and it's worse now here than when I lived in California. There is no assimilation anymore. We just create Spanish phone lines and applications that are in Spanish. We must cater to the illegal alien. Give me a break! Your article, which states that illegal workers do the jobs American workers won't do, is inaccurate. You never mentioned the part about the low wages the employer offers. Just like Jorge Bush, you are on a propaganda parade and will not look at this problem with an open mind. I have witnessed that the children of illegal aliens won't do the jobs you stated earlier, either. What is the solution when these illegal aliens are at an age when they can't perform these jobs? I'm guessing your solution is just to let another 20 million enter. So you'll tell when is enough? When this nation has 500 million people? A billion? Two billion? We are importing poverty to a nation that already has its share of poverty. We have businesses that exploit the cheap illegal labor and leave American workers without hope! Your article is far from accurate, and to portray the Border Patrol as just wasting our money and time is pathetic.

Greg Slusser


Lack of Streetlights Doesn't Cause Crime; Growth Does

"Night Light" (Currents, April 28) begs for a rebuttal. Living in Tucson is a challenge--everyday, there is a new piece of desert that is raped and pillaged so we can bring more people here, some of whom then feel the need to criticize our way of living in the desert. For everyone's information: Dark skies do not create, increase or encourage crime. Dark skies have very little to do with criminal activity. People do that all by themselves. The increase in crime on Tucson's streets is in direct proportion to the increase in population--more people means more people who commit crimes. Tucson has had dark skies since long before the recent mass influx of people, and darkness should in no way be blamed for how unsafe our community has become.

It is disturbing to hear about people who want their fears to govern how they live and worse, how I live. If you do not feel safe riding your bicycle after dark, then don't ride it, but do not presume to think that you will be safer if you get some streetlights. If you need to be out after dark, take responsibility for lighting your own way and carry a headlamp or a flashlight, or do not go out alone. If a police officer cannot identify a suspect because of low-pressure sodium lighting, then perhaps their training is lacking, and they need to be educated about how single wavelength light affects colors. It is discouraging to hear people claim that our streets need to be lit up so we can pretend it makes our neighborhoods safer. Shutting down the meth houses, investing in a neighborhood watch program, making our homes more difficult to break into--those are things that will make our neighborhoods safer. "Warm and fuzzy" has nothing to do with our demand for less light pollution--it has to do with values that determine the quality of life, a quality that we are rapidly losing in our rush to cram more residents into our community.

Go to New York City sometime and decide how safe you feel. That city is so lit up at night as to appear to be daytime, but does that stop the criminals? No, it does not. In fact, to paraphrase the TPD community officer quoted in your article, if you can see while it's dark, so can the criminal who wants to attack you or break into your house. How safe is that?

Congratulations to the City Council for voting for a strong Pima County Lighting Code. This is something that our community supports not just for the astronomers, but for ourselves. We want to see the moon when it comes up; we want to find Orion in the night sky; we want to watch the meteor showers when they grace our path. I, for one, do not want to give in to the criminals or my fears and lose the natural things that make life in our desert home special and worthwhile.

Bonnie Poulos


Cops Were Just Yanking the 'Weekly' Chain

The plain fact is that streetlights don't lower the crime rate. They only change people's perceptions of how safe they are. The "law-enforcement officials" you talked to knew that: They were just yankin' your lariat. See how carefully they phrased their answers.

Dave Snell