Yes, Let’s Protect Ourselves, but Not at Liberty’s Expense : Bombing aftermath shows that blame can be flung around blindly

The speedy arrests Friday in the vile bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City offers a remarkable view of U.S. law enforcement at its impressive best. It also offers Americans a revealing glimpse of their capacity to jump to conclusions on the basis of the flimsiest of rumors and assumptions.

It turns out that the suspects--and it must be stressed that they are merely suspects, still innocent under the law--are home-grown Americans, linked to the right-wing Michigan Militia. The questions of evil and intent aside, they certainly don’t look or sound like stereotypical foreign terrorists.

Whatever the base motive for killing so many innocent civilians in the Oklahoma outrage, it is well for us all to contemplate what it takes to make the public environment more secure. Only on Thursday, more than two years after the bombing at the World Trade Center in New York, did federal authorities put up concrete barricades around major federal buildings in Los Angeles. Such complacency is inexcusable. However, further protective steps must be considered carefully, for they are costly--both financially and psychologically--and could well erode our vaunted civil liberties and freedoms.

Never will it be possible to stop every terrorist, foreign or domestic, particularly suicidal ones. But certain sensible precautions can and should be taken immediately. Major public buildings in Washington, such as the Capitol and the White House, have been fitted with sturdy concrete barricades. To the fullest extent possible, similar modifications should be made at all major public and private buildings that are potential targets. Modern architecture, with glass-curtain walls and accessibility to the street, makes protection all the harder. But security inspections at entrances to vulnerable buildings should be stepped up, and potential hiding places for bombs, such as trash barrels, removed. Future public buildings must be designed differently, however costly that might be; a report on applying military technology to civilian buildings is expected soon from the National Academy of Sciences.

Particularly difficult to protect are airport terminals, given the constant flow of traffic. The police at Los Angeles International Airport have begun strict enforcement of rules against unattended vehicles parked outside terminals. They should not retreat in that regard, nor should they ease the present vigil against unattended luggage.

Beyond that, some suggest controls on bomb-making equipment. That is not likely to work, given that the Oklahoma bomb was constructed of such common ingredients as fuel oil and a cheap and easily bought fertilizer, ammonium nitrate.

Obviously, better police intelligence would also be a plus, but caution here is warranted. The Los Angeles Police Commission Thursday gave more authority to the department’s Anti-Terrorist Division. It approved wider use of electronic eavesdropping and undercover operations. But, given the division’s tarnished history of abusing civil rights, the commission properly paused before granting wider authority to collect information about people who happen to be members of suspicious groups.

Indeed, one of the many disturbing aspects of the reaction to last week’s events was the willingness of many Americans to jump to conclusions. In this case, the conclusion--apparently false--was that the massacre was the work of Muslim fundamentalist terrorists.

Merely because of rumors, war whoops against immigrants sounded Thursday in the halls of Congress. Once again opprobrium was showered on Arab Americans and Muslim immigrants. There were calls for punitive measures to expedite deportation of immigrants even without evidence of criminal activity.

America must not allow the despicable animals who snuffed out so many lives in Oklahoma also to blast out the pillars of constitutional rights on which this nation stands.