`BROWN-SHIRT HARASSMENTS'

The Leonard Pitts Jr. column concerning police harassment was so dead-on
right it is scary (July 8, Life-style, "Are we so crime-weary we'll accept
police harassment?").

He told about a black man being hauled off to jail for scattering ashes from
his cigarette which is, unfortunately, a common story everywhere, not only
in California.

Small towns all over America suffer the same sort of "brown-shirt mentality"
in their police forces, who concentrate their attention, relentlessly
focusing on the very people least able to defend themselves: the poor, the
working class, teen-agers and people of color (although a poor white is just
as likely to be harassed as a black).

Unfortunately Mayberry Sheriff Andy Taylor and his deputy, Barney Fife, [The
Andy Griffith Show] have never existed in real life.

Any officer of any police force has the right to demand identification from
you on the spot. Heaven help you if you forget your purse or wallet that
day.

(Of course if you're a doctor, an attorney or a bank president, you have
nothing to worry about. You won't ever be harassed.)

So many people sincerely believe that if you are arrested you must be guilty
of some crime. I wish these people would do a bit of boning up on history
and realize that many totalitarian societies began with this very sort of
police activity.

Rebecca Wurm, Lake JacksonA0

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett