Pubdate: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Contact: http://www.chron.com/ `BROWN-SHIRT HARASSMENTS' The Leonard Pitts Jr. column concerning police harassment was so dead-on right it is scary (July 8, Life-style, "Are we so crime-weary we'll accept police harassment?"). He told about a black man being hauled off to jail for scattering ashes from his cigarette which is, unfortunately, a common story everywhere, not only in California. Small towns all over America suffer the same sort of "brown-shirt mentality" in their police forces, who concentrate their attention, relentlessly focusing on the very people least able to defend themselves: the poor, the working class, teen-agers and people of color (although a poor white is just as likely to be harassed as a black). Unfortunately Mayberry Sheriff Andy Taylor and his deputy, Barney Fife, [The Andy Griffith Show] have never existed in real life. Any officer of any police force has the right to demand identification from you on the spot. Heaven help you if you forget your purse or wallet that day. (Of course if you're a doctor, an attorney or a bank president, you have nothing to worry about. You won't ever be harassed.) So many people sincerely believe that if you are arrested you must be guilty of some crime. I wish these people would do a bit of boning up on history and realize that many totalitarian societies began with this very sort of police activity. Rebecca Wurm, Lake JacksonA0 - --- Checked-by: Melodi Cornett