>Sender: >To: >X-Original-Message-ID: <0d5401bf03b5$067184d0$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> >From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: Another clear voice of freedom >Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 15:11:01 -0700 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >Pubdate: Sun, 19 Sept 1999 >Source: Orange County Register (CA) >Copyright: 1999 The Orange County Register >Contact: letters@link.freedom.com >Website: http://www.ocregister.com/ > >ON FREEDOM'S 'THIN BLUE LINE' > >It is a widely held view that police officers form the "thin blue >line" that protects law-abiding citizens from the criminal element. >But police also maintain another thin line of sorts - the one that >separates a free society from a tyranny. > >That's why the laws and customs that govern police behavior have a >direct bearing on the day-to-day freedoms Americans enjoy. > >Yet those who raise concerns about unwarranted searches and seizures, >police codes of silence that cover up corruption, questionable >shootings of suspects or the militarization of police forces, often >are tarred as "anti-cop," or "soft on crime." > >Don't try that with Joseph McNamara, a research fellow at the Hoover >Institution at Stanford University. This former police chief of San >Jose and Kansas City, and onetime New York City cop, is no enemy of >police. But he is willing to talk about law enforcement issues that >make some cops squeamish. > >"I suppose it sounds a bit corny," he told us. "But I have always >considered the American police officer to represent the ultimate >decentralization of a government of, by and for the people. Cops are >public servants with a fundamental duty to protect life and >constitutional rights, not an armed force occupying territory." > >The war on drugs and the increased federal involvement in local law >enforcement funding and training, McNamara believes, promote this >dangerous shift in which police often develop "a fermenting contempt >for the people they encounter," he wrote in an essay for Time >magazine. > >"I've seen the frightening extent to which the government has taken >over training," he told us. Police forces now routinely request bigger >weapons and learn tactics more appropriate for the military. "There's >nothing wrong with being a soldier. If that's what you want, that's >what you should be," he said, but not a police officer. > >One consequence of the drug war, he wrote in a June 6 Register column, >is that it encourages police to unjustly seize property and then keep >the assets for their budget: "[I]n around 80 percent of the seizure >cases no one is even charged with a crime. Because it is a civil >proceeding, the property owner does not enjoy the presumption of >innocence." > >Ultimately, McNamara believes that "police tactics must always be >consistent with a rule of law in a democratic society and never those >of totalitarian nations." We're pleased that at least one prominent >one time police official has the gumption to articulate such a vital >principle. > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------