DRUG RAID AN EXAMPLE OF POLICE GOING TOO FAR

The feeling of rage cannot even start to describe how I felt after
viewing the surveillance tapes of Stratford High School in South
Carolina on Friday. Fourteen armed policemen with dogs raided the
school in search of drugs. They found nothing. Kids were instructed to
get on the floor and if they refused, they were handcuffed. According
to Goose Creek Police Department Lt. Dave Aarons, some of the officers
had their guns drawn in the low-ready position, just in case a kid
tried to use a weapon. Besides the absurdity of this statement, after
viewing the surveillance footage, it is apparent that, in fact, the
officers were pointing the guns directly at the kid's faces.

It makes me uncomfortable that we are living in a country where it is
OK to hold high-school kids at gunpoint for suspicion of possession of
drugs. Kids should feel safe at their schools and not have to worry
about a bunch of policemen taking the student body hostage. Policemen
are supposed to be our friends. They are supposed to be here to
protect and serve us. Instead, they are storming schools heavily armed
and in massive force because they thought that some kids may have some
drugs.

Enough is enough. Let's end this war on drugs before it is our
children being held at gunpoint by men and women who we are supposed
to be able to trust.

Dan Rosenkrantz,

New London