Authorities’ Patience Paid Off
“In Vietnam,” recalls Jim Shamp of Cheney, “we Army types used to say that the Marines would never waste artillery as long as they still had people to send up the hill. We were, of course, being sarcastic.
“However, there is a real SWAT team mentality among the military and police that seems to almost enjoy the use of personal violence in settling conflicts. They don’t seem to realize that violence begets more violence.”
Shamp was responding to last Thursday’s “Bagpipes” column, published just as the standoff between federal agents and Montana’s freemen was being negotiated to a close.
“The FBI, in the freemen case, chose the nonviolent approach, and it worked very well,” said Shamp. “They deserve to be congratulated.
“The only thing I would have done differently would have been to turn off the power much earlier and use fewer agents.”
The column had asked readers to consider a variety of law enforcement stories then in the news - the freemen situation and a Spokane arrest of several Hells Angels members, for two examples - and share their thoughts about the status of law and justice in this country.
Jim Nelson of Spokane had this to say:
“The majority of humans believe in law and justice. It’s the ones who have not risen above the animal that have trouble with this concept.
“In my opinion, justice in this day and age is not well served in many cases. Too much litigation on a convicted criminal’s behalf, even those who have confessed, has tilted the scales of justice in their behalf.
“I would like to see a more-level playing field for victims. Certainly, our tremendous rise in crime has proven we need to perhaps go back a little to being tougher with the criminal.
“It would help if law schools spent more time on ethics and what is morally right and less time on what is technically correct.
“I really feel that before long it will be almost impossible to even apprehend a criminal without the threat of a lawsuit or having your case thrown out through a technicality. It’s almost like the laws are being daily drawn up or changed for the benefit of the criminal.
“It’s just exasperating to see how this law profession is daily manipulating the courts to benefit the criminal.”
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