ERIC SHUMAN'S cautionary commentary on the too easy use of the terms
Nazi and Gestapo for describing people we don't like or agree with
is valid.

It hit me hard, but not the way, I think, he intended. His conclusion
bears repeating here:

"(When asked the question) have you ever been face-to-face with a
real Nazi? I could have truthfully answered yes; yes, I have. It
happened long ago in Vienna. Some men with swastika armbans were
systematically ransacking my family's home. It's something that,
even today, I don't take lightly I don't think anyone else should
either."

Neither do I. Today here in America, police and federal agents
wearing body armor and helmets) regularly crash in the doors of
families, hold the occupants (including women and children) at
gunpoint and "systematically ransack" the occupants' homes. I'm
writing of the homes of ordinary families who have been informed
upon by the most dubious of sources. When nothing is found, no
apologies are offered.

The use of police power to enforce personal and moral strictures is
leading us down a slippery slope. Today there two Constitutions, one
for drug suspects and another for the rest of us.

I hope I may be forgiven for describing the Aug. 4, 1996, raid on
the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club and similar police actions as
'Gestapo-like."

Gerald M. Sutliff
Walnut Creek, CA