ARIZONA TAKES THE WAR ON DRUGS TO RIDICULOUS LENGTHS

What ever happened to moral outrage? So many people seem inured to the
injustices and indignities others suffer.

A case in point is the year's prison sentence an Arizona woman
recently drew for a minor drug offense. Born with no arms and only a
partial left leg, Deborah Lynn Quinn, 39, was placed in a "secure"
medical unit by the Arizona Corrections Department because she
couldn't be sent to a regular prison.

Quinn was charged with selling $20 worth of marijuana to a police
informant and with possessing a small amount of the drug in her home
after she had been placed on probation.

It would have been cheaper for the state to keep her under house
arrest with an electronic monitor. As it stands, the Corrections
Department will spend $126,000, or $345 a day, to keep the woman
incarcerated in the special medical unit.

''When you consider that for the cost of locking up one handicapped
woman who sold $20 of marijuana, Arizona could have put four murderers
in a maximum-security prison for a year, you have to wonder who's
committing the real crime," says Steve Dasbach, national director of
the Libertarian Party.

''Arizona prosecutors aren't content with inflicting cruel and unusual
punishment on handicapped people," he adds. "They apparently prefer
their punishment to be ridiculously expensive too."

In England, police recently charged a couple with stealing the
bedsheets from a hotel in Watford Gap. Kevin and Katherine Mulgrew
were arrested at their home in Oldham after returning with their three
children from a weekend holiday.

Police came to search the Mulgrews' home only hours after their
return. The Mulgrews were locked up for eight hours. They were
released the following morning after the hotel found the sheets.

''I stripped the bed because one of my sons spilled a drink and I
didn't want the mattress to be stained. I was just doing what any
house-proud mother would, making the room look tidy," says Mrs. Mulgrew.

Housekeepers cleaning the room failed to notice the linen stored in
the room's laundry bag outside the door. The hotel offered the couple
a free stay at one of its facilities, but the Mulgrews rejected the
offer and probably will sue.

It's increasingly difficult to have respect for the law when its
agents are devoid of common sense and compassion.

In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., last month, a 9-year-old boy was handcuffed
by a sheriff's deputy who saw him riding his bicycle without a helmet.
After viewing a videotape of the incident, Palm Beach County sheriff's
officials say Deputy Ken Bachman was right to subdue the unidentified
boy.

Taken by a private investigator on an unrelated case, the video shows
Bachman rifling through the boy's backpack and pockets while he sits
on the ground with handcuffs on. It also shows Bachman pushing the boy
to the ground twice as he tries to stand.

A spokesman for the sheriff's office maintains the deputy originally
told the boy to walk his bike home and get a helmet. Later, while
patrolling on a bicycle, Bachman spotted him still riding without a
helmet. The boy made a quick U-turn and sped away. Bachman gave chase.

''The deputy had to catch up to him and hold him because he didn't
know what the circumstances were," the spokesman claims. "Now he
started thinking maybe the bike was stolen."

When Bachman caught up with the boy, the child tried to run away.
Since the deputy didn't have a patrol car, he decided to handcuff the
boy, the spokesman says.

Though the boy was never arrested, his mother was livid. "All this
didn't have to happen for one helmet," she says.

''You don't get to handcuff someone and push them to the ground for a
civil infraction," says Valentin Rodriguez, the family's attorney. He
says Bachman violated the boy's rights.

People are more prone to express outrage over cruelty to animals than
to people. In Denmark this week, the Trapholt Art Museum disconnected
a controversial exhibit that featured goldfish swimming in food
blenders. The blenders could be turned on, depending on the whim of
the viewer.

At least seven fish were blended beyond all recognition. Animal rights
activists howled in protest, and authorities in Kolding have launched
an investigation. Exhibit organizers could face fines if they
disregard orders to cut off power to the blenders.

Museum director Peter Meyer defends the work, saying it doesn't
encourage people to destroy the fish. Instead, it addresses ethical
questions facing society, he maintains.

''We have abortions and we have respirators where we choose whether to
keep people alive or not. We have become rulers of the decision on
life and death in a new way. This work of art exemplifies this
decision in a precise image," Meyer claims.