Police Cooperation With Criminals?
* I was astonished by the reaction of the Anaheim Police Department to Operation Rescue’s clinic blockade March 28. That morning, dozens of Operation Rescue followers illegally barricaded one floor of an Anaheim building. They obstructed access to several (uninvolved) facilities, as well as to the office of the doctor whose practice they were “protesting.”
In response to this blatantly criminal activity, Anaheim’s finest did not issue an order to disperse. They did not arrest the trespassers. They did not safely escort patients or personnel into the offices on the occupied floor.
Instead, they went out of their way to cooperate fully with the leaders of this semi-organized mayhem. In fact, an Operation Rescue spokesperson was quoted in the media as having thanked Anaheim officers for their assistance!
What I would like to know is this: May all lawbreakers in Anaheim expect to be treated with the same conciliatory courtesy from the Police Department? May all business operators and their law-abiding, taxpaying patrons expect the same disregard for their property and personal safety?
Whose rights will be abrogated next by the Anaheim Police Department’s posture of cooperation with criminals?
JAN E. CADY
Westminster
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