Torture Euphemism?
The San Diego police have been using a technique that they call “pain compliance,” a not-too-subtle euphemism for torture, to facilitate arrests. Results, according to protesters, have included broken bones, dislocations, nerve damage and other injuries, as well as pain.
The silence of the civil liberties community has been dismaying. If a judge were to order such torture, or the Legislature to permit it, the outcry would be immediate. The Eighth Amendment forbids the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment.
The extreme left and right have each been noted for disapproval of Bill of Rights protection for the other. But the civil liberties community’s dedication to the Bill of Rights is not supposed to be tainted by concerns about the political attitudes of people whose civil liberties are at risk. This makes their silence all the more disturbing.
CHARLES T. BUMER
San Diego
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