Captain Kirk and the Constitution

Swami, I see that law enforcement is claiming a story in the newspaper helped round up some of the "Most Wanted" gang members in Lake County. So I guess you're pretty happy about that, right? Signed, Whacko in Waukegan

Ah, where to begin, Mr. Whack?

First, Swami has to wonder how tough local gangers are.

Can you really be among the 10 grimmest gangbangers in Lake County if you go belly up to the cops just because the newspaper in town says you should, you now, be a good citizen and go quietly to the hoosegow? Be a good kid, and just raise your hands.

Lord, don't thugs have any pride in their craft these days?

Dillinger must be rolling over in his grave.

Further, Swami has an unreachable itch under his turban about this whole public relations blitz being orchestrated by the feds, Rep. Mark Kirk and Sheriff Mark Curran. Seems wonderfully convenient and pre-packaged.

In three years of collaborating with the Feds, the locals produced six indictments, which (as Swami's brain calculates briskly) is about one every six months. Now with the press-release policing blitz in full force, they get three arrests in a weekend and the tipoffs from citizens are rolling in. Woo-hoo.

So, Swami says to himself, doesn't this mean these mooks were just sitting around waiting to be arrested all along? You wonder what stopped feds or local cops from arresting them a week ago, or last month or last year. But it's nice to know all the federales aren't just working airport gigs to make sure travelers take off their shoes and empty felonious shampoo bottles.

Perhaps you can't arrest a gangbanger in Lake County unless Kirk is running for office and needs to reestablish his I'm-hard-on-crime street cred.

But as crime sweeps go, this one is decidedly limp.

The hardest part of this crime sweep seems to be deciding whose turn it is to hold the press conference and where the press conference will be. The latest press conference (now get this) about arrests of LAKE COUNTY CROOKS in their LAKE COUNTY HOMES was held in downtown Chicago. The ATFers must hate that drive up I-94.

Here's a thought as Swami digresses. Even if this is a cynical election year ploy to reap the benefits of easy arrests (mostly minorities, but you noticed that I bet) and make yourself look extraordinarily Republican, Kirk actually could do some profound good for his rep.

Be a real pro-law Republican. Try it, Mark. You'll like it.

He could publicly renounce the torture of federal detainees at secret CIA lockups from here to Tunisia. He could say that, after thinking it over, water boarding really is torture and he's against it. To this point, Kirk seems oddly befuddled by these questions.

Swami is a pro-law sort of soothsayer and sage. And he's especially fond of the American Constitution and its legal grandeur.

If arresting local gangbangers makes it safer here, Swami is down with that. But Swami would much prefer Kirk show he'd like to make all of us safer by restoring the Bill of Rights particularly and human civil liberties in general.

KIrk's been the cabana boy for an administration that includes several key participants who won't be able to leave the country within 10 months without their own private security guards. They're liable to get nabbed for war crime charges and be hustled off to the Hague.

Even if it's a hard call for Kirk, the rest of the world has a pretty clear view of torture and what befalls those governments that use it.