A wise man once said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. So, as a police officer I have some urgent things to say to good people.
Days after days my men and I struggle to hold back a tidal wave of crime. Something has gone terribly wrong with our proud American way of life. It has happened in the area of values. A key ingredient is disappearing, and I think I know what it is: accountability.
Accountability isn’t hard to define. It means that every person is responsible for his or her actions and liable for their consequences.
Of the many values that hold civilization together—honesty, kindness, and so on—accountability may be the most important of all. Without it, there can be no respect, no trust, no law — and, ultimately, no society.
My job as a police officer is to impose accountability 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 restraint such as guilt, shame and embarrassment.
Fortunately, there are still communities—small towns, usually—schools maintain discipline and where parents hold up standards that proclaim: "In this family certain things are not tolerated — they simply are not done!" Yet more and more, especially in our large cities and suburbs, these inner restraints are loosening. Your typical robber has gone. He considers your property his property; he takes what he wants including your life if you enrage him.
The main cause for this break-down is a radical shift in attitudes. Thirty years ago if a crime was committed, society was considered the victim. Now in a shocking reversal, it is the criminal who is considered victimize: by his underprivileged upbringing, by the school that didn’t teach him to read, by the church that failed to reach him with moral guidance, 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 accountability, we become a society of endless excuses where no one 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.
The key point of the passage is that______.
A. stricter discipline should be maintained in schools and families
B. more good examples should be set for people to follow
C. more restrictions should be imposed on people’s behavior
D. more people should accept the value of accountability
