Imperfect is preferable to dangerous

John Currell, Henderson

Friday, June 20, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

In his Sunday letter, Mel Lipman noted the recent 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that prisoners cannot be held at Guantanamo Bay indefinitely without being charged. And most of us would agree that holding someone indefinitely without a charge is simply dead wrong.

But Lipman went on to attack the minority views of the high court. And he expressed his concern over the possible future appointment of another conservative justice.

Issues before the court are difficult and any 5-4 vote should be viewed as indicative of some balance. We do not need a court that votes 9-0 along political lines, and a 5-4 vote should not be viewed much differently from a 6-3 vote.

Attacking the majority point of view would be much easier to understand than attacking the minority’s.

Approximately 2 percent of our population commits 100 percent of the violent crimes. The perpetrators who are apprehended are not held indefinitely without being charged. However, those individuals being held at Guantanamo Bay are not wearing the uniform of their country and must be recognized as a special breed of combatant. If we continue to insist that the rights of these individuals are more important than protecting our country, we will all eventually be touched by their actions.

We must accept that we do not have a perfect justice system. The task of our military and law enforcement personnel who strive to keep us safe is difficult. Supporting some catch-and-release program for terrorists is not helpful and is in fact a very dangerous practice. They do not like us and are trying to kill us.

Sharing evidence and sensitive information with the entire world to prove their crimes beyond any reasonable doubt works to our disadvantage. Even POWs do not go to trial. Maybe authorities should publish a short biographical sketch of each of the detainees.