Pubdate: Sat, 01 Sep 2007
Source: Journal Standard, The (Freeport, IL)
Copyright: 2007 The Journal Standard
Contact: 
http://www.journalstandard.com/shared-content/perform/?domain_name=journalstandard.com&form_template=letters
Website: http://www.journalstandard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3182
Author: N. Bill Smeathers

TERRORISM OR AMERICAN JUSTICE?

Is there a correlation between the two? This is the scenario. In the
wee morning hours and under the cover of darkness, several black clad
armed individuals smash in the doors of a home containing a small
child and two handicapped (one crippled) adults. Shining flashlights
into the bedroom and the face of a sleeping 9-year-old child, they
train guns at her head. With incomprehensible screaming and yelling,
shock the child awake, instilling in her immeasurable fear and extreme
psychological trauma. A psychological trauma this child will live with
for the rest of her life.

Moving through the house, the armed individuals repeat themselves,
incomprehensibly screaming and yelling with guns and flashlights in
hand. They instill in the crippled and handicapped adults of the home
the same immeasurable fear and psychological trauma they did to the
child.

We must remember, to a small child there is nowhere on earth that a
child feels safer or more secure, than to be asleep in their own bed,
in their own home. To have that child's sense of family and home
security shattered by a perverted and hateful act of terrorism is both
a cowardly and unconscionable act!

The black clad armed thugs in this scenario are not enraged criminals
set on committing a felony or robbery. They are not some sort of
Taliban extremists or radical insurgents. These black clad armed thugs
are representatives of the Illinois and Wisconsin State Police,
S.L.A.N.T., acting against American citizens on American soil.

Armed with an ill-conceived, haphazardly issued search warrant, and in
the wake of their destructive conduct, the senseless destruction of a
family's sense of home security, the ridiculous waste of law
enforcement resources, and the end result of this mindless
destructiveness? A misdemeanor charge, possession of paraphernalia,
some pipes and rolling papers. All for the administration of personal
use medical marijuana? Illegal, you say? So, because of the medication
they use, is this then how we deal with children, crippled and
handicapped people? Sending in black clad armed terrorist thugs in the
middle of the night?

I am sick of this perverse, irresponsible, abusive and hateful conduct
out of law enforcement officials against children and handicapped
people. I have decided. Now, you decide. Is this sort of conduct
American justice and law enforcement, or is it really a cowardly act
of terrorism?

N. Bill Smeathers

Freeport
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