Dear Editor:
As a result of a response to a vandal who was attempting to rob him, a Long Island merchant has been ridiculed for not having held the bandit for police after disarming him.
The merchant, who disarmed the intruder with a licensed shotgun, then allowed the man to go free, giving him forty dollars and a loaf of bread upon hearing that he was broke and unemployed.
Consequently, the majority of people interpreted the actions of the store owner as unwise and even childlike for crime must be punished. This is a stance which is difficult to refute but there are times in the relationships of individuals when the spirit rather than the letter of the law must be considered. No doubt about it, if this position became widely accepted, criminals would be roaming the streets with complete impunity but compassion must be exercised in isolated areas. The owner who, in showing a degree of kinship and understanding toward his fellow man, is now being regarded as a clown.
It is true that the sobbing thief who vowed to cease from any future lawbreaking might disown that promise in the future but if we accept this attitude, then mercy and leniency must be abandoned and any form of redemption must be mocked.
Howard Lawson