◆ SpookStack

~ Dear’ Frien lucidly sets forth in his letter and that of | the ‘AFSC and the ACLU: “the - -* |r distinguishing: -feature -of a go%ernment | ee eens: ‘] , devoted to the preservation of inalicnable "Tights Of life and liberty is that it must be as concemed with the means by which it + Performs its functions as with the ends. The AFSC'and the ACLU criticized the {police and FBI action in Meridian, .| Mississippi, - as described dn. the. onl: ‘| public-report ‘that has been ‘made of it, because the use of illegitimate means + [threatened “the protection of the" very rights | of © life” and:. liberty." whose’ Preservation was’ the object of the action. ‘~The illegitimate means used were: (1). entrapment and (2) murder. The reported ‘version of the incident discloses that the’ $36,500 paid tothe informers was used « to’ ‘procure . this ‘particular: attempted *x-: bombing at this particular time'so that “i, trap: could be faid. And athe reporte rsion tells us that the police and the FBI taid this trap, not for the purpose “athering --evidence- ~ against , these: individuals and’ apprehending’ them so * that. they might be made to stand tria +-,Put for the purpose of murdering them. __ The reported version indicates that the police and FBI effort: was apparently ie i aah By entrapment and murdes (of | ~’ {one of the two: intended victims), they? ‘appear to have terminated the series of --': ~ s°%" bombing outrages. But this fact does not‘? +i Prove that either the murdered woman . flor her surviving partner were criminally - fesponsible for the bombings or that, . hey werc, they merited the’ death , ? ntence, Under our ‘system, neither’ of- jose determinations were properly the inction of the police or FBI, and the <, assumption, of them by the police and : There ‘is but one difference between , the position that Park Chamberlain so |i ! Viiag M3 EREROSURE 72-87 Because “the police/FBI action flapparently successful and because ‘the g jvictims were viewed by most People as t “undesirables”, the Public's silent ‘yaeceptance of such conduct is specially = , ae { ingerous. “Any individual. who does ~~ ~ anything to attract attention to himself 3 (whether the result may be ‘socially useful 12 OF socially destructive) risks being viewed , #3.an undesirable. Acquicscence in such .,Jawless means of dealing with {undesirables will -erode our national ~"eommitment to the preservation of the means that diminish such rights, it is but ‘8 small step to abandoning the end itself - government to protect basic human a gights. ° - .. it Liberties Union ay - * very rights that Park Chamberlain extolls. - * F= Once we have accepted the legitimacy of at tt is the highest and finest duty of --/ Executive Director 7 te New York wean cence be