DRUG RAIDS GONE WRONG

Timothy Hallam's letter to the editor regarding the tragically
unnecessary death of FBI agent Samuel Hicks while apprehending an
alleged drug dealer contained this admonition: "Don't sell drugs and
the FBI, ATF, state police, local police, etc., won't be knocking on
your door" ("Drug raid logic," Dec. 2).

Sounds good until one pauses to look at "wrong-house raids" and the
lies and criminality exhibited by police in some of these instances.

What about the seeming sloppiness in police operations and the perhaps
unwarranted reliance on "informants," who well might have axes of
their own to grind? Then there is the "militarization" of police and
that "us against them" mentality that's sometimes seen.

I know little about the raid on the Korbe house. However, there have
been enough wrong-house raids to raise questions in any but the most
closed of minds -- questions that might well apply here, too.

Alan Schultz

McCandless