To the Editor:

Yes. Littering is a crime. It should be punishable by a very large fine. I commend

R.E. Spears on his article that proves how ridiculously easy it is to avoid punishment in Southampton County. Apparently all you have to do when evidence is introduced that shows your names on trash bagged and dumped is say “I don’t know how it got there, someone else must have taken my trash and thrown it out” and case dismissed.

It seems to me the question ask should be who would want to take your trash when they have plenty of their own.

How disappointing it must have been to those who took the time to look through the trash and find the evidence.

Traveling through Virginia makes it very apparent that our county is one of the worst for litter than anywhere in this state. Listening to comments made by people who have moved here or just traveling through only adds to that conclusion.

Now someone in our court system wants to say it is OK for people not to take pride in who they are and the home they live in.

There are states that when any such trash is found with this type of evidence the persons are automatically made to clean it up and are heavily fined.

Yet our court settled for flimsy excuses when anyone who’s name on the trash should be held responsible.

It is time to take this problem seriously make people aware of stiff punishment. Take a look at our, your road sides, try and to say it is not time to attack this aggressively. It is indeed sad when the court or anyone show that they have no more concern than those who participate in it.

Tobey Edwards

‘Courtland