Unfettered Letters

Looks like money

When looking at the picture of Bernie Madoff in Star Business Weekly (3/24), I see a relative resemblance to the face of George Washington on the $1 bill.

I guess when you have stolen billions of dollars, you start to look like one.

Dan Steiner
Stilwell

Madoff robbed victims

Jon Hudson (3/18, Letters) doesn’t think Bernard Madoff’s victims should get their money back.

Doesn’t he realize that Mr. Madoff committed a heinous crime against the people he stole money from? They were robbed, just as surely as if he had stuck a gun in their ribs and stole from them. I do not see the comparison at all.

Many of the foreclosures are on houses that the people could not afford in the first place, or they had refinanced them to the point that they could not afford them. The stock market is always a risky business. The recession did not take the Madoff’s victims’ money. He did. That is why he is jail, and that is why everyone associated with him should be in jail.

Nina Gennetten
Gravois Mills, Mo.

‘Straight talk’ from Miami judge

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Spencer Eig should be given a medal instead of rebuke for trying to save a 15-year-old girl’s life and destiny (3/1, A-10, “Judge rebuked for blunt warning; The Florida jurist told a runaway, 15, she could become a ‘toothless, dead crack whore’.“). She had been to hell and back, through no fault of her own, making bad choices due to bad parenting. Judge Eig did her a favor by advising her where she was headed if she landed on the streets.

Judge Eig gave her straight talk, which apparently no one else has. No apology was needed, instead an evaluation of her situation and further assistance were needed.

Chief juvenile judge Cindy Lederman, who apologized to the girl for Judge Eig’s remarks, was wrong. She should have counseled her further on the realities of the life she was choosing and provided her with further social services assistance.

Josephine Byrne
Raytown

Allow ex-felons to vote

Ex-felons should have full citizenship rights restored, including voting, after they are released from incarceration. Having served their time, it would benefit their re-integration into society, which is in society’s interest.

In some cases, they may still have legal and financial debts to repay. But these obligations should not stand in the way of the restoration of full citizenship rights, including voting. Just because someone is a debtor, that’s not cause for the withholding of voting rights.

Studies have shown that ex-felons with voting rights are 50 percent less likely to re-enter the criminal justice system than those without voting rights. We need more participation in democratic processes, including voting. When people have ownership in society, they are less likely to behave in a deviant way.

Ken Gates
Overland Park

KC must crack down on begging

Kansas City needs to get real about the people who beg day after day at intersections, on the Plaza and on highway ramps. Beggars are often substance abusers who are frustrated that social service programs don’t provide alcohol or recreational drugs. Folks who give to the beggars, while good-hearted, provide money for either alcohol or drugs, fueling the substance-abuse problems.

Kansas City should pass laws prohibiting street begging. Beggars are a traffic hazard. Begging can cause accidents at traffic lights by distracting drivers.

Beggars hurt commerce, tourism and the reputation of the city. Tourists on the Country Club Plaza are scared by the unsavory characters begging at the intersections.

Instead of falling for their ruse and giving street beggars money, take what you would have given them and spend it at one of the struggling businesses in the city. For the greater good, give a struggling business owner a much-needed foothold in tough economic times.

Bill O’Brien
Kansas City

How to change ‘Murder Factory’

Thanks you for the very good reporting by The Star on the “Murder Factory” (1/25,-27, A-1). Two items need to be corrected in ZIP code 64130 in order to move forward and begin healing.

No. 1 is to provide new, fresh, strong black leadership. This means casting off the first-generation entitlement black leadership. These black leaders have shown no inclination to admonish the people they claim to lead and represent. Worse are their guilty white accomplices and enablers who want to turn their heads and shovel more money to the failed Kansas City School District.

No. 2 is the school district leadership needs to segregate the students who want to learn and send them to protected environments. The troublemakers need to be sent to a disciplinary school environment for attitude adjustments.

It sure will be a tough sell, and it will not be easy. But a tough, comprehensive program to address the problem is needed from people who care for the future of the kids in the “Murder Factory” and Kansas City. Anything less is to promote the status quo.

Ron McCabe
Kansas City

Punishing financial thugs

What the U.S. needs is some penal code modifications to make it easier and quicker to put finance miscreants like Bernie Madoff in jail and seize all their assets.

Just as drug dealers can lose any belongings used in a drug deal, executives who cost retirees, future and present, their savings should lose every asset they own up to the amount they lost.

Suing these crooks in civil court is way more civil than they deserve.

Joe McCarthy
Kansas City

‘Lucky sperm’ = light sentence?

A young, drunk driver named Curtis Mertensmeyer speeds down Ward Parkway, then hits and partially dismembers a young pedestrian with his whole life ahead of him. The pedestrian dies, doomed by a driver who fled the accident scene with no regard for the eventually fatal injury. All of this is undisputed by the guilty party. The guilty party gets five years instead of the maximum seven from Judge John Torrence (2/14, Local, “Five year prison term in hit-and-run”).

But wait! It gets better. Mertensmeyer may serve only 120 days and then be paroled. Could it be because he is from Mission Hills and has high-powered attorneys? If not, why the leniency? How many other times has a DUI, speeding, hit-and-run resulting in death resulted in 120 days? Where is the precedent-setting case, please, or the rationale?

Sadly Mertensmeyer has learned only that being the result of a “lucky sperm,” to quote Warren Buffet, means he never has to truly be responsible for any of his bad decisions. Maybe a judge recall and civil action is one way to re-tip the scales of justice.

James Rodewald
Mission Hills

Light sentence in hit-and-run

A Mission Hills resident is convicted in the 2008 hit-and-run killing of Daniel Riemann (2/14, Local, “Five year prison term in hit-and-run”). The 20-year-old perpetrator, Curtis Mertensmeyer, pleads guilty to (underage) drinking, speeding, hitting Mr. Riemann and leaving the scene.

Mr. Riemann was thrown 139 feet, with a leg severed, and left to die because his killer sped on and did not seek help. And for this, the admitted killer is sentenced by Jackson County Judge John Torrence to only five years in prison with possible probation in 120 days? That’s four months in jail for taking a life, if probation is granted. How is this justice?

As a citizen, I am outraged that the maximum sentence was not imposed in this case. As a mother, I am angered by the message this inept judge is sending our young people. Apparently you can drink, drive and even kill a pedestrian without suffering undue consequences. Of course, it probably helps if you live in the “right” part of town with affluent, well-connected parents.

To Mr. Riemann’s family, my condolences. To the judge and legal system that would let this convicted criminal go free with a slap on the wrist: for shame.

Jennifer Jarrell
Leawood

‘Murder Factory’ needs better schools

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver seems to believe that all the problems in the 64130 ZIP code can be solved by investing in churches and ministers (2/1, Opinion, “How to close ’Murder Factory’; Churches: Key players”).

Rep. Cleaver, I have news for you. Nothing will ever change in the “Murder Factory” unless and until the kids who grow up there are given the opportunity to receive an education.

There are many churches and an abundance of ministers and reverends in the neighborhood. There are no good public schools. Why? Because the Kansas City school board is an abysmal failure and has been for 30 years. You need only to look at their record.

What these kids so desperately need is a real leader to stand up and lead. Abolish this incompetent and dysfunctional board. Replace board members with individuals who actually care about teaching the kids.

Stephen G. Spruill
Pleasant Hill