First Polygraphs and Then Torture?

[Matthew Gaylor]

Note from Matthew Gaylor:  Today I read two more disturbing stories 
of America's slip into police statism.  The first is about a Illinois 
public school Nazi using a polygraph to ferret out the off school 
grounds activities of his students.  See: 
<http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-football-polygrap 
hs1105nov05.story> . Dunlap, IL High School Superintendent Bill 
Collier said it was the right thing to do to sort the guilty from the 
innocent: "It may look bad, it may sound bad, but it's the fairest 
way."   -- One by one, the subjects were led into a room and hooked 
up to a polygraph machine.  The purpose: to determine whether the 
teen-agers violated Dunlap High School's code of conduct by attending 
a party where alcohol was consumed."

And I worry what might be the next step in America if polygraphs 
don't achieve the desired results. The New York Times reports 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/05/business/media/05TORT.html> this 
chilling thought "In many quarters, the Newsweek columnist Jonathan 
Alter is considered a liberal. Yet there he was last week, raising 
this question: "In this autumn of anger," he wrote, "even a liberal 
can find his thoughts turning to . . . torture." He added that he was 
not necessarily advocating the use of "cattle prods or rubber hoses" 
on men detained in the investigation into the terrorist attacks. 
Only, "something to jump-start the stalled investigation of the 
greatest crime in American history." And the NYT continues:  "One 
week earlier, on CNN's "Crossfire," the conservative commentator 
Tucker Carlson said: "Torture is bad." But he added: "Keep in mind, 
some things are worse. And under certain circumstances, it may be the 
lesser of two evils. Because some evils are pretty evil."".

Now obviously giving children polygraphs and torturing terrorist 
suspects are very different, but what happens when the kids "crimes" 
are considered so heinous that stiffer measures are required? 
Considering the US government, public schools and other public 
institution's insane obsession with the war on drugs it is in my mind 
a hop, skip and a jump for them to come to the conclusion that 
torture, (like getting a teen drug pusher to revel his supplier) an 
acceptable technique.

Perhaps it's important to dust off your copy of The Bill of Rights 
and re-read the 5th amendment which explicitly states that:
"No person shall be nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be 
a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or 
property, without due process of law..."
See: <http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/billrights/billrights.html>

I for one swore to uphold the US Constitution against all enemies 
foreign and domestic and anyone who tortures suspects is someone I'd 
consider a traitor and enemy.

Regards,  Matt-

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