Crime without punishment.

This article criticizes the legal system in the United States and comments on the mindset that allows people to avoid taking responsibility for their actions. An 18-year-old American decided to have some fun in Singapore by spray-painting and otherwise vandalizing cars. Singapore authorities sentenced him to six strokes with a bamboo cane, a $1,400 fine and four months in jail. None other than the President of the United States has declared this punishment "extreme." The American Chargé d'Affaires in Singapore has argued that this young man is a first offender-as if it were a principle of international law that the first one is on the house. What makes this something more than an isolated petty crime case is that it symbolizes two wholly different approaches to life and two very different visions of the world. It shows up most dramatically in criminal cases where someone has deliberately chosen to violate the law and inflict costs and harm on other people.