Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Contact:  http://www.seattletimes.com/
Copyright: 1999 The Seattle Times Company
Pubdate: 9 Jan 1999
Author: Kurt E. Armbruster, Seattle

DRUG WAR MUST NOT EVOLVE INTO A WAR ON BLACK AMERICA

Thank you for Michelle Malkin's profoundly disturbing column on recent
"drug abatement" activity in Seattle ("Seattle's war on drugs has
priorities mixed up," Dec. 22).

As a white, affluent, drug-abhorring North-End resident, it would be easy
for me to assume that the authorities know best, that "public nuisances"
are being eliminated and go on about my business with smug satisfaction.
This would be a false and dangerous assumption.

Are the livelihoods and constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens being
wrongly compromised in the interest of maintaining public order? Is this
another Wenatchee mess in the making?

I would be interested to hear what the communities involved have to say,
and I believe City Attorney Mark Sidran's office owes us a full accounting
of these activities. The "war on drugs" must not become war on black America!

Kurt E. Armbruster, Seattle 
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MAP posted-by: Mike Gogulski