LIBERTARIANS: 11-YEAR-OLD LATEST DRUG VICTIM

Libertarians: 11-year-old Murdered in Raid is Latest Victim In Drug War

PANORAMA CITY, Calif., Sept. 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was
released today by the Libertarian Party of California:

California Libertarians expressed outrage and grief over the killing of an
11-year-old boy in Modesto last week - a killing that underscores the
destructive and deadly tendency of the nation's drug policies, the party
announced today.

On September 13, SWAT team officer David Hawn shot Alberto Sepulveda once
in the back as Alberto lay face down on his bedroom floor during a pre-dawn
raid of the Sepulveda family home. Alberto's father Moises was arrested on
a federal warrant charging him with conspiracy to distribute
methamphetamine. Moises was released on $20,000 bail two days later.

"The War on Drugs has found its latest victim: 11-year-old Alberto
Sepulveda," declared Libertarian state executive director Juan Ros. "The
federal government and its failed drug laws are responsible for Alberto's
death, no question. This is an absolute travesty."

Modesto police were cooperating with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency in
an investigation into a local methamphetamine ring. Federal agents
reportedly told local police that no children lived in the Sepulveda home.
In fact, three children lived in the home: 11-year-old Alberto and his two
siblings ages 14 and eight.

"The real tragedy here is the fact that deaths like Alberto's will occur
again," Ros noted. "The Drug War has turned local police into dangerous
paramilitary forces with autonomous, centralized bureaucracies and
military-style armaments."

According to the Washington-based Cato Institute, local police collaborate
frequently with the military under a 1981 federal law that diluted the
Posse Comitatus Act -- an Act intended to keep the military out of civilian
affairs. Under the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Officials Act,
police have access to military equipment and facilities for anti-drug efforts.

"Citizens don't want soldiers protecting them in their neighborhoods, they
want police," Ros added. "More unnecessary deaths will take place as long
as these laws are on the books."

In 1997, for example, the SWAT team in Dinuba, California (population
15,000) killed an innocent man, Ramon Gallardo, in a pre-dawn raid eerily
similar to the one that killed Alberto Sepulveda last week.

"All Libertarians extend their deepest sympathies to the Sepulveda family,"
Ros concluded. "Alberto's death will be remembered as we continue to fight
for an end to this insane Drug War."