The hair on the back of my neck is starting to rise. The Bush administration has made it possible for the roundup of 10,733 fugitives over a 1-week period under Operation Falcon. On the surface, this looks good for domestic security. Making the streets safe (and safety makes you feel good about the Republicans, doesn’t it?). Yes, they’re fugitives, but mostly parole violators or people with warrants, and here’s the objectionable part to me: Only about 6 percent were sex offenders. Yet Gonzales touted as one of the main reasons for the roundup that they were protecting children from sex offenders. The article mentions sex offenders several times. Really? What were the other 9,074 fugitives doing? Well, let’s see: 100 were wanted for murder and 364 were gang members (is that in-and-of itself a crime?). So that knocks off another 464. What were the other 8,610 doing?
And this is only one roundup of three netting in the neighborhood of 30,000 since April 2005.
Hmm, I think I’ve seen this kind of program before …
Dac Nelson 