Pubdate: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL) Copyright: 2000 St. Petersburg Times Contact: http://www.sptimes.com/ Forum: http://www.sptimes.com/Interact.html Section: Letters Author: Frank Clarke, Oldsmar Note: Headline By Newshawk POWER CORRUPTS Re: Crime, in the name of the law. We mustn't be surprised over local police being found to be corrupt. We mustn't be surprised that it isn't limited to the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division. My stepfather was a "revenooer" during Prohibition, and he would later tell marvelous stories about how he skirted the law and twisted the legal process to "get the job done." Being children, we didn't understand (yet) that such things were immoral; all we knew was "good guys and bad guys." Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely, according to Lord Acton, and he has never been proved wrong. Now we have the example of Manatee County deputies planting evidence, tampering with witnesses and generally acting like thugs, because they're allowed and encouraged to do so to get drugs off our streets. It now looks as though there might be a worse problem than drugs on our streets. We must soon address the fundamental issue of the morality of the war on drugs, or we must soon lose all that we hold dear. Frank Clarke, Oldsmar - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart