letter to editor

Dear Editor:

I am writing because I am concerned about your practice of printing the names of those arrested for crimes and a description of police incidents which are published daily.

While I understand that such things are public record, I must say that I disagree with the practice of airing everyones dirty laundry.

I write this letter because I recently had a friend arrested for DUI and his name and was published in the paper with a description of the incident.

I personally do not condone DUI in any form and I fully support the courts imposing the appropriate punishment. I would not consider it unfair to suspend his driving license for a considerable period of time.

The trouble is that now comes a stigma that my friend may not be able to rid himself of regardless of any corrections in his behavoir. My friend has had a very troubled past few months which culminated in his decision the drive under the influence of alcohol. I do not believe it prudent to further punish him by humiliating him by publishing his name in the paper.

I question why people read such sections of the paper. I believe it is an extension of voyuerism. If that is the case then I firmly believe people should mind their own business. I doubt they would like it if they made a mistake and that mistake was printed and distributed to the community. God forbid they are innocent. I have never seen the newspaper include a section on those who were proven innocent of the minor offenses for which there names were published in the newspaper. I know the paper is not culpable for the information provided to them by law enforcement, but if your going to lend enough credence to the information to publish it then maybe it should be considered to periodicly update readers that a given person had been wrongly charged with a crime.

Thank you,
Eric Smith