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President’s Crime Bill

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President Bush, in his new crime bill, has urged that the rules of evidence, which excludes illegally obtained evidence, be weakened or done away with (Part A, March 12). By doing this he completely misses the point. What encourages law-abiding citizens is respect for the law. When police officers do not respect the law, such as the apparently unprovoked beating of a motorist recently by many Los Angeles police officers, there can be no respect for the law.

The Supreme Court, when it decided to exclude illegally obtained evidence, did so on the basis that such rules were the only way we were going to get the police to respect the law. Since no other approach seemed to be able to remedy a lawlessness on the part of the police, the Supreme Court merely said the courts were not going to be a party to a lawless transaction.

President Bush, as well as the others who want to do away with the exclusionary rules for illegally obtained evidence, should support strong and vigorous criminal prosecution of police officers who break the law. The federal government has the power to impose severe penalties on police officers who do not obey the law, and until such powers are adopted and enforced, then the exclusionary rules should remain. Requiring the police to obey the laws is for the protection of all us. Anyone of us, black, white, yellow, or brown, male or female, could find ourselves in the same situation as the motorist who was brutally beaten. If the police had not been caught on video camera, you can rest assured that the police report would show that the motorist fell down and hurt himself, was trying to escape, etc. A free society cannot countenance such behavior on the part of its police.

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JAMES R. CHRISTIANSEN

Santa Barbara

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