Crime & Sacking of America (H)

Thomas, an assistant attorney general in Arizona, decries America's crime problem, which he terms ``The Great Havoc.'' He blasts the left for its ``social atomism'' and the right for its ``libertarianism.'' And although he acknowledges there are ``honorable people'' on both sides (no middle?) of the political spectrum, he asserts that both ``camps... share a poisonous obsession with individual rights.'' Among Thomas's proposals for stemming the ``chaos'' supposedly enveloping the country are allotting more funds to fight crime, adding cops on the beat, instituting prison labor, restoring the family, ending treatment of adolescents as rational adults and returning to religion. Such recommendations are hardly surprising from one who claims that ``we live in a time of random lawlessness that... is unprecedented in human history.'' Conservative Book Club main selection; author tour. (Nov.)