Pubdate: Sun, 18 Dec 2005
Source: Aspen Daily News (CO)
Copyright: 2005 Aspen Daily News
Contact: http://www.aspendailynews.com/contact_us/form.htm
Website: http://www.aspendailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/635
Author: Katie Turner

ASPEN CITIZENS AREN'T EXEMPT

Editor:

I am writing this letter in response to the drug raids  in Aspen and
the angry "citizens" of this town. I put  it in quotations because
anyone who is angry at the  police department over these raids
obviously cares  nothing about this beautiful place where we live and 
the families that we raise here.

I am a 19-year-old graduate of the Aspen school system,  and have
spent most of my life here. I have seen  firsthand the effects of
cocaine and other ILLEGAL  drugs on people my age, and the results are
not pretty  or fun to watch. The people who were arrested in our 
restaurants were contributing to the downfall of my  generation. They
were breaking the law and the police  had every right to do something
about it. I've read  letters where people were upset over the fact
that guns  were drawn, putting children and adults alike in  danger.
Think of this - what would have happened if one  of those dealers in
Cooper Street screwed over another  dealer and that dealer decided to
do something about  it? I guarantee that situation would have
presented a  much higher danger than the police, who are trained in 
how to properly handle a firearm.

How angry would these parents be if they caught their  child high on
cocaine and came to find out they had  purchased it at Cooper Street?
I doubt they'd be  writing angry letters to the paper then.

What it all comes down to I guess is the fact that the  people who
were arrested were breaking the law. The  amount of drugs found or the
price for them on the  street are totally irrelevant. What matters is
that the  APD did their job, arrested drug dealers and possibly 
illegal immigrants, and made our restaurant a safer  place to take
YOUR children.

Get over it Aspen. Just because we're a small town  doesn't mean our
citizens are exempt from following the  law.

Katie Turner

Aspen
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin