WE OVERVALUE SECURITY, UNDERVALUE LIBERTY

Bob Herbert's column ("Conviction should shake faith in system," Viewpoints,
Nov. 17) was one more in a disheartening long list of similar stories.
Overzealous law enforcement has gotten so bad that you didn't even need to
leave that day's paper to relate more examples. In Houston an innocent man
is killed by cops on a drug raid, shot 12 times, nine of them in the back.
As if that is not insult enough, the only charges brought against these
"public servants" (dare I say "jackbooted thugs"?) is one count of
trespassing. Are they remorseful? Not so much that they can't appeal their
dismissals.

And prosecutors across the country are crying "foul" after a federal appeals
court ruled that they can no longer bribe witnesses with plea bargains and
money. They are outraged over being forced to play by the same rules as the
rest of us. If this makes it more difficult to secure convictions in some
cases, so be it.

The list of things we are supposed to do to make things easier on law
enforcement is too long already. From gun control to cell phone networks to
e-mail privacy, we are increasingly expected to order our lives for a system
that lets its officers murder us, pays people to lie against us at trial,
and coerces confessions from little girls who can barely read the document
they've signed.

No nation that calls itself free should put up with this, but the average
American, conditioned over the years to value security over liberty, doesn't
want to be bothered. For those of us who do care, it reaches the point where
we no longer have enough faith in the system to shake.

Checked-by: Don Beck