The victims /

Ostensibly a defense of the rights of the victims of an all too undeniable wave of violent crime in America (those ""decent, innocent, law-abiding citizens""), this rapidly deteriorates into vigilantism and rabid sputtering at ""knee-jerk liberals"" and the ""elitists who carp at the policemen""--specifically and predictably the Warren Court (whose, 66 Miranda ruling is to blame for the climate of permissiveness) and the ACLU. Also, ""Kunstler, Wicker, [Ramsey] Clark, [Vern] Countryman, Ellsberg are spokesmen for the lawless in our society."" Carrington, a former attorney for the Marines, the U.S. Treasury Dept., and the Denver and Chicago police, would like to see an end to the ""Attica syndrome"" of ""ultralenient and permissive intraprison policies""; a tightening of the parole system; the reinstatement of capital punishment as the only effective deterrent to killings, assaults, rapes and riots; the quashing of Civilian Review Boards; and last but not least, the institution of an ombudsman or commission to counter the pernicious super-civil-libertarians--say, the Americans for Effective Law Enforcement of which Carrington is the director. Well, you didn't think he wrote this for the public good, did you? Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.