Re: We will Survive -- MIDRANGE-NONTECH

Other nations have similar philosophies about letting juvenile criminals off
easy.
I see in the newspaper that a hacker was recently convicted in Canada, of
breaking into scores of computers in several nations.
The penalty was 8 months in juvenile detention (not jail or prison) and $
165.00
This person is 17 years old.
It seemed to me that the sentence was extremely light.

> But still, the laws of our land allow a teenager
>  to murder, and get off essentially scott free with a sentence in Juvenile
>  Detention until they turn 21.  On the archaic presumption that someone that
>  young does not know that what they are doing is wrong.

The statistics I have seen on C-Span & elsewhere would seem to indicate that
in any given US racial population the criminal element is a minority.
Harrassing everyone who has the same ethnic makeup as the suspects, leads to
tension between the police and that population that gets in the way of
helping the police solve the crimes.  Look at the state of police relations
with black Americans.

Do we profile Italian decendants because of the Mafia?
No
Why not?
Because profiling is racism rather than good police work & with the Mafia we
need good police work really badly.

Customs & Immigration & Border Patrol have always had more flexibility in
searching people crossing international borders than the police have had
inside the borders.  I do not think it would take much to extend some of the
rules of international ports to that of airports & other significant
infrastructures.

> Timothy McVea.
> He was one of us.

He may have been one of you, but he was not one of me.
The difference is in philosophy.

There is a saying "My country right or wrong" and many people stop there, but
the original quote goes on to say when right to keep it right & when wrong to
correct the problems.

Now there have been a lot of problems.
People who work law enforcement & government are subject to the same human
frailties as everyone else, and there have been errors in judgement.

The Timothy McVeas of the world say that because law enforcement did wrong
stuff at Waco or some other place, that they are evil & should be attacked.
while I identify with the philosophy of identifying & repairing problems,
such as the National Council of Churches now advising the FBI on how you tell
the difference between a religion that can be reasoned with and a cult.

> Unfortunately, it may require more innocents to get arrested,
> to protect the lives of Americans

I was surprised that several material witnesses were arrested.
I would have thought that if someone was identified as a material witness to
something that led up to Sep 11, that they would willingly cooperate with the
authorities, but apparently people can be arrested who are not suspected of
any crime.

MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)