To me, the latest incident involving allegations of beating and urinating on Native Americans and Michael Atherton's question about socalled "police intelligence units" are related. The decades long attempt to regulate people's use of drugs has created a lot of the abuses we now see. It has corroded the general sense of respect between citizens and law enforcement. As they try to wrap their arms around the greased pig that is "the drug problem", cops have gotten more and more hair-trigger. And thus we have the string of incidents where humans and pets get shot for reasons of being "threatening". Police have learned the technique of "domination", and then it generalizes to all encounters. Finally, people fear them, and harm is done because citizens are acting out of that fear of uniformed force.
So, then we get this suggestion of spies-in-blue. Well, the tiny shreds of mutual confidence could wither away if we have to fear that our every move is going into a massive central crime database. This is 1984 realized. For that reason, it is a BAD idea. Rather than adding this, we should be SUBTRACTING the futile and staggeringly expensive drug war. That really is the only way to recover our rights (such as the right to be presumed innocent that was revoked with the RICO act). Lets take away the duty to bust into our houses and catch us at enjoying ourselves in taboo ways. And let us NEVER allow our cops to be spies for some national security department. -------------- Jim Mork--Cooper "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our Country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out." Gen. William T. Sherman (1864) Letter to the Mayor of Atlanta. Get your free Web-based E-mail at http://www.startribune.com/stribmail TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
