LIBERTY THREATENED

The Feb. 6 article "Rally blasts city's no-knock response" was encouraging.
The Denver community is right to be outraged over the atrocious murder of
Ismael Mena.

When Alvidia Martinez said, "I'm here because it could have happened to me,"
she was right. It could have been any of us. We must realize that our very
lives are in danger and that the price of drug prohibition is exorbitantly
high.

Protection of individual rights against infringement from the state is what
our Constitution and Bill of Rights are all about. As long as people sit
back and thank God that it's other people's rights and lives that are taken
in the drug war (and not theirs), those hard-won liberties will erode away
to nothing.

Government and law enforcement officials should be warned that we're not
going to stand for it and that we'll put our money and votes towards ending
the abuses. Thanks to the hundreds of Coloradans who are making that clear.

Heather R. Della Rocca,
Washington, D.C.