Pubdate: Mon, 19 Jun 2000
Source: San Antonio Express-News (TX)
Copyright: 2000 San Antonio Express-News
Contact:  http://www.expressnews.com/
Forum: http://data.express-news.net:2080/eshare/server?action4
Source: San Antonio Express-News (TX)
Author: Gregg Davis

'LAND OF THE FREE' ENSLAVED

The June 12 editorial"Are Drug Warriors picking on blacks?" states, "There 
are numerous examples of the ineffectiveness of the nation's war on drugs. 
The Express-News could have gone further and admitted that the drug war is 
a wasteful and destructive failure.

You make it sound as if it would be alright if we locked up all the"guilty 
parties" instead of mostly blacks and Latinos. I don't know what kind of 
country you wish for, but I was brought up to believe the United States is 
the "land of the free". I was taught our country was different because of 
the Bill of Rights.

We live in a country today where everyone is suspected of a drug crime. The 
police can break down your door in the middle of the night and kill you 
based on an informant's word that you have drugs.

You can be stopped and searched at any time, especially if you fit a 
"profile". You or your kids can be forced to submit body fluids just to 
work or go to school. It's all OK because we're in a war against drugs.

We are giving up more constitutionally guaranteed rights. What do we have 
to show for it? Where it will stop or go, I don't know. But I can tell you 
one thing: It won't stop with our country being "drug free".

Gregg Davis
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