SUBWAY CRIME has reached hideous proportions and police protection has faded to near-invisibility in many cities. Those are the facts, as The Crimson correctly points out in its majority opinion. But in earnest fear about "vigilantes" and "commandoes," the majority castigates the Guardian Angels for doing what we believe is valuable and admirable work.

The Crimson accuses Curtis Sliwa and his group of seeking--and getting--publicity--not laudatory but surely not dangerous. The fact is that some subway riders in New York and elsewhere have found the Guardian Angels welcome sights on empty subway cars. Nowhere have the Angels been accused of abusing their positions; this fact is especially salient because the Angels are not favorites of the police, who do not enjoy being shown up in their line of work. The Angels carry no weapons and can only make citizens arrests. The leap of imagination between these kids and Mussolini's brown shirts seems profound indeed.

The rise of citizens groups like the Guardian Angels is an understandable response to intolerable conditions in American cities. Of course we would prefer that the government protect us, but that is simply not going to happen in the immediate future. As long as these groups stay within the law--and only if they do so--we see no problem with their existence. Citizens who use the law to protect others deserve encouragement, not unproductive scorn.