HIGHTOWER: Las Vegas Police Crack-Down on 9-Year-Old
Police power has a way of encroaching on our liberties little bit by little bit.For example, here's a little story about little Jeremy Anderson in Las Vegas. He and a group of his pals were coming home from school last fall when they came upon a freshly-poured, cement sidewalk. A construction worker asked if they wanted to write their names in it and, of course . . . they did!A few days later, though, Jeremy's mother Barbara got a call from the construction company demanding $11,000 for "damages" done.Aside from the fact that writing in cement does NOT do $11,000-worth of damages, and aside from the fact that Barbara -- a single mother with three children -- didn't have eleven dollars much less 11,000 of them . . . THIS IS ABSURD! Barbara had some friends in construction and she offered to have them fix the damage, but the company said no.Weeks went by and nothing happened, so she figured somebody had had a sudden attack of common sense and dropped the matter. But then came Jan. 28th of this year. Jeremy didn't come home from school. Worried, Barbara called the principal's office. Oh, they said, the police had come by and arrested the boy.Arrested him ?! Yes, he had been taken from class, made to sign a waiver of his rights, taken to the police station, charged with a FELONY and -- now get this -- stripped-searched. A nine-year-old boy . . . whose so-called "crime" was to write in wet cement . . . was strip-searched and booked . . . without his mother's knowledge.I know Las Vegas is a weird place, but doesn't someone in authority there have at least a couple of brain cells working? Apparently not. The city prosecutor is going after Jeremy hammer & tong, setting him up for a trial on April 21.If the police power in America can be used to persecute a nine-year-old cement-writing boy . . . we're all in trouble.Source:"Sidewalk calligraphy lands 9-year-old in police custody." Austin American-Statesman: March 5, 1997.
