Disturbing View on E-Mail Crime

I am extremely concerned about Dana Parsons’ opinion in his Nov. 21 column that the U.S. attorney’s office is seeking too harsh a penalty for accused e-mail hate crime defendant Richard Machado.

Parsons expresses the opinion that a prison sentence of “any length” would be improper, citing as a reason that it is not clear that Machado knew that he was committing a crime. The column omits the fact that Machado fled to Mexico after sending the hate mail message, a clear sign of consciousness of guilt.

What disturbs me even more about the column than its biased viewpoint is that this is at least the second article Parsons wrote which I believe trivializes anti-Asian conduct.

Parsons [earlier] wrote an article expressing the opinion that Asians overreacted toward U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato’s stereotypical parody of Judge Lance Ito. Why does Parsons believe that only Asians, and not African Americans or women or Hispanics, are hypersensitive to such conduct?

Just as disturbing is the fact that Parsons published this column while the jury was still deliberating and that he risked influencing the jury. The lack of balance should have placed it in the editorial section of the paper.

KIRK H. NAKAMURA

Yorba Linda