to the editor: Los Angeles Times reported April 23 that on April 20, Bang Cho, an 84-year-old dementia patient wandering around downtown Los Angeles, was punched and kicked in the head, thrown to the ground, and set on fire. Cho did not survive. His murder occurred a block from my condo across from the dry cleaners I use.
Police arrested Lavonta Wilder for this attack. Wilder is a 240-pound homeless man with “multiple felony convictions for violent crimes.”
The much-touted decline in Los Angeles' homicide rate changes nothing for Cho or, for that matter, Wilder (“Los Angeles is safer than it has been in decades, but crime is an issue dominating the mayoral race,” May 24). It doesn't mean anything to me. For many of us in downtown Los Angeles, the city “has become a dystopian hell.” Public safety is definitely on voters' minds.
James Moore, Los Angeles
