Pubdate: Fri, 27 Apr 2001
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Marc Librescu
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n705/a09.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?172 (Peruvian Aircraft Shooting)

DRUG WAR'S PRESUMPTION

To the Editor:

Re "Baptists' Plane Was Identified as Drug Carrier" (front page, April 22):

You report that the State Department said the American missionary 
plane shot down in Peru had been mistakenly identified as a 
drug-running plane. But in the United States, people are presumed 
innocent until proved guilty. The police don't have the right to kill 
suspects at will because they believe that they may have broken the 
law. In this country, we leave punishment to the judicial system. The 
punishment for smuggling drugs is not the death penalty.

The only way to determine whether a plane is carrying drugs is to 
board it. Determining whether or not the right people were killed 
while sorting through the wreckage is wrong.

MARC LIBRESCU
Fair Lawn, N.J., April 22, 2001
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MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe