Deputies’ questions spur a debate

The unannounced intrusion by L.A. County sheriff’s deputies, acting at the behest of the FBI, on the office of a Pomona College history professor critical of President Bush’s policy toward Venezuela (March 11) emits the strong stink of fascism. The purpose was clearly to intimidate not only Miguel Tinker-Salas or the Claremont Colleges but higher education in general.

The FBI’s involvement shows that the impetus for this kind of police behavior comes from the highest levels of the federal government, ultimately from Bush. This, along with torture as official policy and warrantless spying on American citizens, is what he means when he says his self-proclaimed status as a “war president” gives him unprecedented, and unconstitutional, powers.

SAFFORD CHAMBERLAIN

South Pasadena

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Why all the foofaraw over antiterrorism police questioning Tinker-Salas? In America, a person has the right to refuse to answer police officers’ questions. They even told him that he was not the subject of their investigation. If he didn’t want to talk to them, he could have just asked them to leave.

After having willingly answered the officers’ questions, however, it is somewhat ridiculous for the professor to complain that the officers should have called and made an appointment or questioned him somewhere else. (They came to his office during his regular office hours. Would he have preferred that they ask him to come down to the station?) It is gibberish to suggest that this incident has anything to do with academic freedom.

DONNA R. HECHT

Claremont