In response to my Fox column:

Maybe if the person didn’t put himself/herself in the position to be used as a scapegoat by some convict we wouldn’t be having the discussion concerning snitches. Maybe if the person who was being interrogated hadn’t put themselves into the position of being interrogated we wouldn’t have to worry about interrogation techniques. Maybe if the person involved in the lineup hadn’t been convicted of a crime in the past his mug shot wouldn’t be in the line up. Notice the theme of these comments. Usually, not always, these people that you are worried about have brought their situations upon themselves. Making the police officers and investigators jobs more difficult only impedes the process and makes the victims wait for their just retribution.

I am 64 years old. I have never been arrested, never been interviewed by any law enforcement officer, never been subjected to a personal body search and have never been asked to let a police officer look in my vehicle. I wonder why. Maybe its because I am honest, I obey the law, I treat police officers with respect and I understand that if I do the crime I will do the time. Not wanting to be a guest of the State and a bunk mate of Bubba, along with the values I was taught by my parents keeps me from having issues with the law enforcement folks.

I find this sad not because some schlub in Canyon, Texas holds these views, but because it’s my impression that they’re representative of how quite a lot of people feel.

All of those wrongfully convicted people must have done something wrong, right? I mean, if they didn’t want to get swept up, arrested, interrogated, charged, and convicted, they shouldnta’ been hanging around criminals. Shouldnta’ been living near criminals. Shouldnta’ been black. Shouldnta’ been poor.

Seriously. I emailed this guy back, explaining to him that many of the exonerated over the last ten years had no prior record, and were merely swept up off the street because they looked like someone police were searching for. His response? They should look in the classifieds (where, he assures, there are lots of great jobs available), get a real job, and move out of poor, high-crime neighborhoods.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 10:08 am by admin and is filed under Police Informants, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.