PUBLIC FORUM NOBODY CARES.

Re ``LAPD response time slows with Valley worst ... '' (July 1):

LAPD response time is more than 11 minutes. Police arrest hookers and check topless bars. The City Council is requiring companies to report if they profited from slavery. In Sacramento they pass unneeded laws but cannot pass a budget. In Washington they discuss music piracy but not illegal immigration or terrorism. Meanwhile people are murdered, raped and kidnapped. Your life is only important to you.

Today, 35 of 50 states (70 percent) permit concealed carried weapons. There has never been lawlessness in these states, yet California would rather let its citizens die than allow them to protect themselves. The police cannot protect you; they will take a report and call the coroner. We must demand the right to protect ourselves because our government can't.

- Joseph Abrano

West Hills

Catering to the car

Re ``Gridlock wars brew'' (June 29):

It appears that the only solution that the state or the city of Los Angeles can come up with to solve its gridlock problem is to build bigger and wider freeways. I wonder if it ever occurred to them that the reason they have a gridlock problem in the first place is because they catered to the automobile from the very beginning.

If the emphasis had been put on rapid transit instead of the car, things would be a whole lot different. So now here we are all these years later and they still are trying to solve problems by catering to the car.

- L.A Calabro

Northridge

Threatens our credibility

Re ``LAPD starts quiet probe of activists'' (June 26):

Kudos to the current and past presidents of the L.A. City Animal Services Commission for their strong positions against a purported animal-activist group that feels justified in publishing private information about the mayor and the head of the city's animal control department. This loathsome and irresponsible tactic threatens the credibility of the many reputable humane organizations working to improve the lives of animals in L.A.

It also emphasizes why cities all over the nation are successfully joining their animal control services into special units within police departments and are contracting animal sheltering to consolidated county operations.

- Phyllis M. Daugherty

Director

Animal Issues Movement

End the violence

In ``LAPD starts quiet probe of activists,'' (June 26) Mariel Garza writes that ``the police are 'closely monitoring' the Animal Defense League'' because of their Web site calling for Mayor James Hahn to replace L.A. Animal Services General Manager Jerry Greenwalt with a more compassionate manager.

Instead, the LAPD should monitor everything that goes on at our shelters. No one is trying to incite terrorism against the mayor or Greenwalt. This is a plea to end the violence against the helpless animals who have no voice.

- Lori Golden

Northridge

A great city

Re ``Workers get more pay while L.A. cuts service'' (June 22):

Harrison Sheppard's excellent article demonstrates the mindset of the city's establishment. City Administrative Officer Bill Fujioka tells us that a 2 percent raise every six months is really 3 percent for the year. He fails to say that for each year thereafter 4 percent is added to the base salary.

Quoting union head Julie Butcher, `` ... private sector comparisons are bad because (the) private sector simply doesn't pay enough to blue collar workers like the gardeners and trash collectors'' in her union. Fujioka's arrogance and Butcher's greed define Los Angeles. But what do I know, I'm only the son of an immigrant Greek.

- Gus Smyrnos

Newbury Park

Bring it on

Re ``Lights out, Gray,'' (Editorial, June 27):

Get real, Daily News editors, your own opinion admits that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ``found that the energy producers manipulated prices.'' The Bush administration appointed the conservatives at the FERC and is about as ready to help out California rate payers as they are to prosecute the corporate rip-offs at Enron.

I'll stick with Gray Davis before I even consider a congressman with two arrests for auto theft fraud or a steroid-aided actor. Bring it on, Republicans, a waste of $60 million for a rerun election.

- Denis Cremins

Simi Valley 

Playing fair

Re ``Fair play'' (Editorials, June 29):

It is my personal opinion that the fair board of the past has suffered because Gov. Gray Davis did not make appointments to replace many of the board members as they retired, died or entered into other public service areas. Many times we could not conduct business because of the lack of a quorum. Your article indicated that the Valley fair is a beloved local tradition that belongs nowhere else other than the San Fernando Valley.

I agree wholeheartedly, provided that the Northeast Valley receives a seven- to 10-year lease agreement from the Corporation of Engineers and Parks and Recreation, along with approval of the City Council and state Sen. Richard Alarcon so that we can plan ahead and make the necessary improvements utilizing the $3 million provided when the Devonshire Downs location was terminated. It's up to the Valley citizens and public officials to support this event because the fair board, both new and old, are not magicians and are unable to make crowds appear.

- Arthur Sweet

Director

San Fernando Valley Fair

Gloomy trend

I was pleased to see the article ``L.A.'s gloomy trend: Smoggy days on rise'' on the front page of the June 28 Daily News. Although pollution has improved over the last 50 years, we are again following a trend of declining air quality.

Unfortunately, 97 percent of our energy comes from dirty sources like coal and natural gas which contribute a significant amount of the impurities in our air. The rise of smoggy days should alarm people of the vital and urgent need to implement more clean and renewable energy for our city.

- Ina Volynsky

Tarzana

Priorities here

Coffee time for Americans. We had better wake up to what is going on. More than 60 of our finest have been murdered in Iraq since our leader declared Iraq war to be over. Afghanistan is still a mess. What is President George W. Bush's primary concern? Re-election in 2004 and money for it. He and Vice President Dick Cheney have been flying all over the country at our expense and raised millions.

In the meantime, California is almost bankrupt, not to mention 44 other states in dire need of financial survival. What happened to what we call the United States? Where, pray tell, is a real president of and for the United States? I emphasize ``united.''

- Dorie Crowe

Calabasas

Luster in Mexico

Re ``Bounty hunter to stand trial'' (June 27):

I think it is ridiculous that Duane ``Dog'' Chapman should be put on trial in Mexico for the capture of Andrew Luster. Anyone with half a brain can figure out that Luster was living so openly there because he'd paid off the ``authorities'' with his millions. Why else would the fool live so openly? And how about the video equipment they found in his hotel room? Was he up to his old tricks?

They have said that Chapman should have gone to the local police and let them arrest Luster. What a joke. If he had done so I'm sure the local police would have tipped Luster off and then hemmed and hawed until he escaped. This trial truly is a travesty of justice.

- Robert D. Mix

West Hills

Job for bounty hunters

Re ``Bounty hunter to stand trial'' (June 27):

How about commissioning some bounty hunters to capture Saddam Hussein and his two odious sons? I suggest Duane ``Dog'' Chapman and his team, who found and captured fugitive Max Factor cosmetics heir Andrew Luster. I also suggest that the U.S. ask Mexico for clemency toward Chapman and his team (who were arrested) since they captured a wanted, dangerous criminal.

- Edmond Robert Mansoor

Thousand Oaks