[originaltext] A wise man once said that the only thing necessary to win ove

A wise man once said that the only thing necessary to win over evil is for good men to do nothing. So, as a police officer, I want to say some things to good people.
    My job as a police officer is to impose responsibility on people who refuse, or have never learned to impose it on themselves. But as every policeman knows, external controls on people’s behavior are far less effective than internal restraints such as guilt, shame and embarrassment.
    Yet, more and more, especially in our larger cities and suburbs, these inner restraints are loosening. Your typical robber has none. He considers your property his property; he takes what he wants, including your life.
    The main cause of this break down is a change in attitudes. Thirty years ago, if a crime was committed, society was considered the victim. But now, it’s the criminal who is considered victimized: by the school that didn’t teach him to read, by the church that failed to reach him, by the parents who didn’t provide a stable home.
    I don’t believe it. Many others in equally disadvantaged circumstances choose not to engage in criminal activities. If we free the criminal, even partly, from responsibility, we become a society of endless excuses where there is no one who accepts responsibility for anything.
    We in America desperately need more people who believe that the person who commits a crime is the one responsible for it.