Police Sweeps in Los Angeles

Have we now reached a point in our society where mere “suspicion” of a crime justifies the abominable picture that accompanied Bob Baker’s article (“ ‘The Hammer’ Is Nailing Gangs”)? Were either of those two children in the arms of their distraught mother guilty of any crime that warranted the trauma of a police officer searching their personal possessions in the privacy of their home? Was the mother, for that matter, guilty of a crime?

Are we no longer safe from “unwarranted searches and seizures” even in the privacy of our homes? Has the mentality of our law enforcement personnel now reached the point that it is “permissible” to fire into a “crowd” in order to stop a fleeing bandit? Does the seizure of three ounces of cocaine and two pounds of marijuana justify 563 arrests and four “sweeps” through South Los Angeles neighborhoods? Is the trauma suffered by this young mother and her children any different from that of a similarly situated young black mother in South Africa? Isn’t there anyone else out there who “senses” something terribly wrong with the message that this picture so graphically displays?

Perhaps Police Chief Daryl F. Gates should familiarize himself with the provisions of the Fourth Amendment to our Bill of Rights.

Has anyone bothered to look into the “validity” of the court order that violated the “rights to privacy” of all of the people in Chief Gates’ first four sweeps? Where are our “defenders” of the Constitution?

RONALD H. PACHECO

Salinas