Alleged Abuse of Logging Protesters

I note with interest that the FBI is launching a criminal investigation of the cops who abused the Humboldt County logging protesters, but I wonder why it always takes a high-profile event for the feds to do their duty (“FBI Investigating Use of Pepper Spray,” Nov. 1).

In my years as a constitutional defense attorney, I have caused illegally seized evidence to be suppressed in criminal matters approximately 1,000 times, each instance of which axiomatically involved intentional conduct by cops violating rights protected by the Constitution.

Yet, not once were any of the cops prosecuted by the feds; indeed, the feds would not even investigate those outrages. Why? Because we did not have a high-profile event with senators and congressmen and political sycophants getting involved. We only had “lowly” individuals whose rights were violated.

MICHAEL J. KENNEDY

Joshua Tree

* I am disgusted to hear the hue and cry of the liberal media over the incident involving the overly protected protesters at Rep. Frank Riggs’ office. Ironically, we had the most brutal dictator dining with our president without a word from this same media. This is a dictator who has millions of his own citizens in slave labor camps and runs a government that harvests human organs of political prisoners. But we can’t raise our blood pressure over those infractions. But apply some pepper spray to some spoiled brats and lawbreakers who terrorized the staff of a congressman’s office and the press goes into conniptions.

ADAM SPARKS

San Francisco

* I find it a bit ironic, in a week when Chinese President Jiang Zemin was visiting the United States and human rights are deservedly an issue, that the FBI launches an investigation into the use of pepper spray against protesters in Humboldt County.

Was not the sit-in a legitimate political protest? This may not be equal to the massacre in Tiananmen Square, but it certainly equates to repressing political protest.

Do we protest Chinese repression because they are not a democracy, but accept such actions in our own country because we are free? Human rights are a legitimate issue but it cuts both ways. Who are we to protest political repression in any form if we cannot tolerate dissent and legitimate protest in our own country?

MICHAEL SOLOMON

Los Angeles