Mug shots on Ventura

The problem with the criminals is that we have been playing patty cake with them for too long, being too friendly and making too nicety-nice. Take the case of the fifteen year-old Richmond, California girl who was gang-raped and beaten on a bench outside a school dance. All but one of her attackers is a minor, so the authorities won't release their names and pictures, though the law should be changed.

For starters, the felons' names and mug shots should be posted on Ventura Boulevard near those of Gustavo Dudamel, the newest wunderkind of the LA Philharmonic, and UCLA's latest programs. Some may bemoan these kids' privacy and point out that they are minors, but the truth is that we are no longer in Oz and that some of these kids could teach Larry Flynt a thing or two.

They may point to the embarrassment and to the stress and strain that the pictures will cause their families, but they raised them and put their wares out in public, so why not follow along the same lines? And while I may not have children, I used to be one, and if I or any of my cousins or neighbors had done anything like that, we wouldn't have needed the criminal justice system to come to our house. We would have needed an ambulance.