Source: Tribune Review (PA)
Contact:  http://tribune-review.com/
Pubdate: Wed, 02 Sep 1998
Note: Headline by MAP Editor

RESPONDING TO THE ARTICLE 'POLICE APPEAL TO PUBLIC TO NAB MARIJUANA GROWERS'

Dear Editor of Pittsburgh Tribune Review:

I am responding to the article POLICE APPEAL TO PUBLIC TO NAB MARIJUANA
GROWERS.  In the article the police ask neighbors to rat on other
neighbors.  The police then go on to tell you how to determine whether or
not someone is growing pot.

- ---- "We're also looking for that neighbor who, like during that dry spell
we had a while back, was disappearing every now and then with buckets of
water into the middle of his field," States said. "Where was he going?"

"Hey, we're looking for dealers, too. High traffic.

If your next door neighbor has lots of traffic in and out and they stay
only for five minutes, that might mean something," States said. ----

I'd like to add.  Look for people who are just acting in a way you don't
like.  If someone acts like a trouble maker, then call us and we'll break
his door down and destroy his furniture looking for pot. Whoa there big
brother.  I mean, are the police going to be coming to my door because I am
a social person with lots of friends? But that is exactly what it says
above. High Traffic. No mention of actually having reasonable suspicion.
This is very disturbing.  Joseph Goebles used such tactics to ferret out
those who disagreed with the Nazis. George Orwell talks about this kind of
behavior by the police in his novel "1984." When do we stop this insanity?
The police are way out of line here. How many more freedoms do we have to
lose before we reign in our government?

`A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose
both, and deserve neither' - Thomas Jefferson'

Jay Ferguson Graduate Student Computer Science and Engineering State
College Pa 814-867-2051 Pennsylvania State University - ---
Checked-by: Mike Gogulski