The long voyage home, from Kresge to Kirkland via Weeks Bridge, humps over the Charles River and through a dark land of lawless marauders. Within the last week at least two students were set upon and robbed by packs of locals youths as they negotiated their way Houseward from the Business School parking lot.

Last year, lights were erected at both ends of the bridge to prevent just such attacks. But there are no locks on the switchboxes, and ill-tempered thugs have discovered that when the switch is turned, the lights go off. Under cover of darkness, respectable Harvard citizens are divested of their slim, black pocket secretaries.

The University didn't put up the lights. It doesn't turn them on and off, and certainly it doesnt' have any business putting locks on other people's lightswitches. Neither is the Cambridge Police Department accountable for this small-scale crime wave, since the land on both sides of the river is under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan District Commission.

MDC officers, however, are products of an affluent society, to coin a phrase, and patrol their territory in cruisers, both land and water variety. Rarely are they concerned with border skirmishes.

As the best of the nation's youth is slowly being beaten to an impoverished pulp, it is essential that the MDC take steps to conserve a vital resource. A foot patrol, for example, could be stationed near Weeks Bridge, ready to respond to the sounds of battle. Or locks could be installed on the switchboxes. Or the MDC officers could be a wee more observant as they speed by in their cruiser chargers.

If the offices of justice are slow to act, Harvard men may be forced to respond to the words of Gabby Spinoza: "Why wait for the law? Let's string 'em up now."