◆ SpookStack

Bat was this really so-or were the o Qnce the,potential for a police stato-ex- lice determined to stage a latter-day "pub- ists-once the police machinery has been lic hanging?" Had the police decided to created and is poised for action-then few. execute their enemies? Was there really explicit orders regarding methods need be no reasonable alternative to all-out war- given. All that is necessary.is simply to fare- or had the police consciously decid- unleash special police forces, such as ed that they would take no prisoners? L.A's "swat squad," and to promote a As citizens' groups and area residents general atmosphere that .sanctions their have pointed out, 'a more humane and special activities. practical alternative was,in fact, avail- Given the mere existence, in major U.S. able. The alternative would simply have cities, of these highly developed, well- been to wait out the suspects---by clearing funded, paramilitary police machines, the area surrounding the house as a way then the means exist to restrict, to sabo. to protect residents of the neighborhood tage, to intimidate and, bluntly,to destroy and, perhaps, by calling in family mem- all of us who are working for needed and bers and friends of,the suspects to plead meaningful social change. for their surrender. For propaganda purposes, the police de-. A double message emerges from the fined the SLA as a band of criminal ter. Iurid spectacle of that Friday evening rorists, against whom the ordinary citizen needed to be protected. But to all actual tus quo, the police seemed to be saying, tem, the message was very different. In "Don't get too far out-of-line or you'll be their actions, as opposed to their propa- dealt with mercilessly." ganda, the police saw the SLA much as. --To the broader community, another!the group defined itself--as part of a revo- message was given: The police are strong lutionary political movement that posed enough to protect ordinary, law-abiding such danger to the established order that citizens from the irrational violence of cri- it could only be dealt with by merciless minal terrorists. In short, "Stick with us slaughter rather than by apprehension, and we'll take care of you." trial and, possibly, conviction.. That second message, however, has All this, larger than life on television, The anti-SLA hysteria had not begun of thinking that led to the tapes, the arguably an ordinary, law-abiding citizen.against those branded "left" or "radical." It was the.. political kidnaping of the But as the examples of Greece and Brazil daughter of one of. wealthiest families that incited the subse- ny, the first victims are always the "radi- quent hysteria. cals"--but soon the net widens to include tions of the SLA, we must face squarely to dislike. The clearest indication of where all this the fact that the police can be counted on natural question arises: Would the police,cates, civil rights leaders, noted journal- had bcen caught hiding in Beverly Hills If Americans accept the war of May 17 or Bel-Air? as a legitimate and reasonable method of cessive methods--the police have gone far nisting--the onset of a police stare. beyond their proper functions as protec-. tors and servants of the pub'ic. Instead, they played the roles of judge, jury and executioner. Is this not the v.ry essence of a-nolictstate?