From: ufo777@webtv.net (ufo777)
Subject: [Illusions] Fwd: Jan. 8 column -- police raids
Date: 8 Jan 1999 03:14:02 -0500
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Is this the guy that almost got you Steve?

Sincerely, Patricia  http://www.serve.com/ufo7
"If you suppress The Truth it becomes your enemy...if you expose the
truth it becomes your weapon.Col Corso"                   


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From: Vin_Suprynowicz@lvrj.com (Vin Suprynowicz)
Subject: Jan. 8 column -- police raids
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    FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED JAN. 8, 1999
    THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
    Raiding the First Amendment

    Washoe County sheriff's deputies armed with search warrants raided the
three major television stations and the daily newspaper in Reno, Nevada
Jan. 6, seeking reporters' notes and copies of videotaped interviews with a
man accused of sniping at motorists on Interstate 80.

  The alleged sniper, Christopher Lee Merritt of Mankato, Minn., was
arrested near Las Vegas Monday night, about 12 hours after allegedly
shooting one man in the chest (he survives though in serious condition) and
hitting five other vehicles on the outskirts of Reno. Once returned to Reno
and jailed, Merritt agreed to television and newspaper interviews --
promptly broadcast -- in which he  appeared to confess to the shootings.

  KTVN-TV News Director Ed Pearce said he was surprised and puzzled by
District Attorney Richard Gammick's raids. "Our feeling is it's an illegal
warrant," Pearce told the Associated Press. "It violates the federal
privacy protection act of 1980."

  Reno Gazette-Journal Publisher Sue Clark-Johnson and Executive Editor
Ward Bushee, who at one point were threatened with arrest, agreed to lock
their reporter's notes in the publisher's office until a subpoena was
issued.

  Prosecutor Gammick said he sent his men with search warrants rather than
subpoenas since subpoenas can't properly be issued until a court date is
set. The prosecutor further argued similar television interviews had been
erased in the past before his office was able to review them, despite his
request that the footage be retained until they could be subpoenaed.

  But that's a pretty thin excuse for sending storm troopers to trample the
First Amendment in all the town's major newsrooms -- especially in the same
jurisdiction where newspaper photographers were arrested last year for
merely photographing police making arrests during revelry related to Reno's
annual classic-car festival.

  This prosecutor's actions appear excessive, out of control, and vindictive.

  Yes, authorities have some responsibility to secure any relevant
evidence. But a less strong-arm, constitutional request to certify the
accuracy of the reports printed or broadcast should have sufficed.

  Besides, aren't conversations in the visitors' room of the Washoe County
jail -- where the tapes and notes in question were made -- already
routinely taped by the authorities?

  Thomas Jefferson famously wrote: "Were it left to me to decide whether we
should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a
government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

  That is not to say the press is ever perfect, nor that it should be above
the law. But when reporters become known as nothing but surrogates for
police investigators, then the newspapers will have ceased to be the
independent organs of inquiry and oversight which the founders struggled so
mightily to preserve -- and for which the press shield laws were enacted in
the first place.

  Of separate concern is the way in which young Mr. Merritt -- who still
deserves a legal presumption of innocence, of course -- was apprehended.

  In a program of random stops for minuscule moving violations which are
justified as promoting "drug interdiction" -- that is to say, which are
used to justify unconstitutional vehicle searches under false pretenses --
Merritt's truck was pulled over by police north of Las Vegas because the
light bulb meant to illuminate the license plate was out. Police saw rifles
in the car, and proceeded from there.

  Now, self-professed student of astrophysics Mr. Merritt appears to be a
couple of stars short of a cluster. In his confession interview, he related
his actions to the movie "Pulp Fiction" as follows: "Nobody seems to have a
problem about two hit men killing people, possibly because it's
fictionalized, I don't know. There's not a whole lot of difference between
contemplating an act and actually going through with it. If you've already
thought about it, that's almost close enough to taking action."

  (Hmm, let me think: where is this surreal doctrine most commonly
advanced, today? In the government schools, perhaps, where voicing violent
or sexist ideas is considered just as serious an offense as palpable
harassment or discrimination; where "a good try" now receives the same
passing grade as a correct answer; and where the merits of sorting
lunchroom glass from cardboard are promoted -- even though the janitor
later throws it all into the same dumpster -- since what's important is not
the actual result, but simply demonstrating one's good intentions?)

  So it's certainly possible this Gomer's answers to police -- as well as
the fact the truck turned out to be stolen -- constituted proper grounds
for an arrest. But when Washoe County Sheriff Richard Kirkland gloats, "I
overheard some talk radio show the other night lambasting law enforcement
for stopping people for having lights out on their license plates. So
there," he misses the point by a mile.

  Of course random stops will catch a few more criminals -- while only
stomping on the privacy rights of a few thousand innocent souls for each
culprit nabbed. But by the same token, imagine how many more offenses might
be turned up if the cops just took to breaking in the front doors of
private homes, at random.

  The point is that America is not supposed to be the most efficient police
state possible, but rather a land where personal liberties are always
weighed against the convenience of the authorities ... and personal
liberties generally granted the upper hand.

  It's a shame neither Sheriff Kirkland nor prosecutor Gammick seems to
understand that.


Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas
Review-Journal. Readers may contact him via e-mail at vin@lvrj.com. The web
sites for the Suprynowicz column are at
http://www.infomagic.com/liberty/vinyard.htm, and
http://www.nguworld.com/vindex. The column is syndicated in the United
States and Canada via Mountain Media Syndications, P.O. Box 4422, Las Vegas
Nev. 89127.

***


Vin Suprynowicz,   vin@lvrj.com

The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it. -- John
Hay, 1872

The most difficult struggle of all is the one within ourselves. Let us not
get accustomed and adjusted to these conditions. The one who adjusts ceases
to discriminate between good and evil.  He becomes a slave in body and
soul. Whatever may happen to you, remember always: Don't adjust! Revolt
against the reality! -- Mordechai Anielewicz, Warsaw, 1943

* * *



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