Letters to the Editor

October 28, 2004

A guaranteed way to increase arrests and convictions for drug possession, gang membership, illegal weapon ownership and other crimes is to give our police free rein over all aspects of our lives. If we as a society decide that eliminating these kinds of crime is more important than our right to privacy, then we cannot complain if the authorities frisk us as we walk down the street, search our homes without notice or cause, or question us about why we're keeping the friends we do. We have rightly not traded away our rights to privacy in this manner--it is simply a price that most of us are not willing to pay in free society.