We must provide our own protection | Letters


January 15, 2013 · Updated 3:58 PM 

Editor,

A recent contributor to your paper stated that if a person cannot rely on the police and military for protection, he should move to another country.

As one who spent four decades in the military, many as a military police officer, I have a slightly opposing view.

I invite that individual to contact our police and sheriff’s departments, or any police department in the country, and get a guarantee that it will provide protection.

They can’t.

As for using the military, the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, as amended, does not allow the military, save the U.S. Coast Guard and National Guard under state control, to engage in domestic law enforcement except in dire emergency when a state government cannot function.

In other words, waiting for the Army will prove equally disastrous.

It comes down to this. When you need a cop in seconds, one may eventually get there.

If you choose to have you and your family killed, that is your choice.

It isn’t mine.

Bill Schoonover
Oak Harbor

 

 

 

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