Editor,
I work as a reader/writer at CNM’s Disability Resource Center, and I came across a column in the July 21 issue of the Albuquerque Journal that should disturb all students and faculty members who are conscious of the need to be ever vigilant about our U.S. civil liberties. On Saturday, Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg produced a column in which, on suspicion alone, she wanted an alleged — this is her adjective — child molester jailed for a molestation crime that occurred recently to four children.
I am sure we all agree that any man or woman who molests children is a menace and should be taken off the streets. In this case, however, the district attorney seems to admit that she is unsure if this person whom she wants to jail is the real molester. Her article fails to present any evidence that this person in question is the molester; doesn’t state whether this suspect has a prior record; doesn’t state whether the police had probable cause to arrest him; doesn’t state whether individual witnesses separately identified this individual acting suspiciously or out of place; and doesn’t state whether Brandenburg herself is prejudiced against Mexican-Americans, males and people of lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
It is understandable that police and law enforcement officials have to deal with intense pressure from a law-abiding public that is frustrated about failure to find the real perpetrator. Whenever members of law enforcement fail to make an immediate arrest of the real criminal, pressure mounts to arrest anybody, including an innocent person, which not only causes a miscarriage of justice by jailing the wrong person, but allows the real criminal to get away scot-free to re-offend.
I may not have gone to law school like Brandenburg, but I do have a sufficient background in U.S. history as both an undergraduate and graduate student to appreciate our Constitution’s dedication to the principles of due process, habeas corpus, etc. Moreover, I have used law libraries in the past for term papers and to help a blind law school student access materials for her studies on labor and gender law. So, I do have familiarity with legal resources.
Our district attorney apparently has the belief that false arrest of somebody for a reprehensible crime like child molestation would never happen to a person like herself because she is white, female and in a prestigious occupation. Granted, it is highly unlikely that she would ever be falsely accused or convicted of such a crime, but under the right circumstances, it could happen, as it did to Kelly Mitchells and a few other unfortunate white women who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Those of us who do care about the rule of law need to respond to Brandenburg and rebut her.
William Delzell
Daily Lobo reader
