Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 01:54:46 -0400
From: Steve Smith <sgs at aginc.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Re:Warning to writers (redux)
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

Ted White wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <ronkean at juno.com>
> To: <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
> Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 7:16 PM
> Subject: [WSFA] Re: Warning to writers
>
> [...]
>
>>Ruby Ridge, Waco, the 'Move' assault in Philadelphia, the Montana
>>Militia, the California landowner killed in a raid when the government
>>wanted the land, the Elian Gonzales raid - the list of (pre 9-11)
>>disturbing events goes on and on - and most of them happened under
>>Democratic administrations, not Republican.
>
> Are you sure about that?   Can you supply the dates for each of those
> events?  (I had this vague memory that the Philadelphia thing happened
> during Nixon.)   And I really don't think the Elian Gonzales raid fits with
> those other events -- no one was hurt or killed that time, and I believe
> Janet Reno did the right thing.
>
> --Ted White

As was the Montana case, if it's the same one I'm thinking about.  It
was tense for a while, but the FBI, IMHO, did exactly the right thing --
  blockaded them and waited them out.

I agree that Reno did the right thing in the Gonzales case.  However,
the PR was howlingly incompetent.  Note to self -- never get in the
middle of a custody battle.

Unfortunately, there are far too many examples of the authorities acting
with extreme violence where it wasn't justified.  Most of them are one
day wonders -- we tend to take them for granted.  Remember Joseph
Schultz?
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A51980-2002Mar6>

--
Steve Smith                                           sgs at aginc.net
Agincourt Computing                            http://www.aginc.net
"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."