"The arrest of several African-American teenagers as suspects in attacks on white or Asian students at the University of Virginia brings some realities into focus. Nobody should assault anybody, period. Beyond that, Charlottesvillians should take notice of four significant considerations.

§ The story 'Assault arrests thrust hate-crime laws into spotlight' (The Daily Progress, Feb. 10) summarizes legal opinion that is technically incorrect. The 'legal scholars agreed that if the nine black suspects are guilty and if they were driven by racial hatred, then they should be charged with hate crimes.' Backward! The commonwealth's attorney can determine charges as he thinks appropriate (also cited in the story). Nobody knows who is guilty until that guilt is established in court.

§ The decisions about charges will be made by the commonwealth's attorney. But the commonwealth's attorney presumably does not decide in a vacuum. The media (including The Daily Progress) and other influences on public opinion will pay some part. So will the attitudes of local legal professionals, the attitudes of the police and others in the criminal justice system. Finally the values and expectations of the local community itself play a role. Such factors had a role in the displacement of the previous commonwealth's attorney.

§ Citizens should be fully aware that, in making decisions, the commonwealth's attorney has almost unlimited executive power, called 'prosecutorial discretion.' There is nothing automatic in the law to determine what the prosecutor does. Prosecutors seem to take account of four presumptive criteria: (a) the real or imagined strength of the evidence in a given situation, (b) the background and characteristics of the persons who might be prosecuted, (c) the costs and benefits of going to prosecution and (d) the attitude of the community to the situation.

§ The real-world results will be with us, whatever the commonwealth's attorney decides. Charlottesville has some pretty good processes (such as the United Way, which I am pleased to support) for handling things on which most people agree. Charlottesville has no processes for dealing with the racial divide. Most people, in leadership positions, public and private, deny or evade the subject. Charlottesville's leadership, public and private, will discredit itself if it leaves the initiative to the followers of David Duke." (Matthew Holden Jr., Letter, The Daily Progress, February 21, 2002)