Well, looks like I’m living in PC Central (and we ain’t talking computers here, folks). From today’s WSJ “Opinion Journal”:

[…]last week […] the Denver City Council passed a resolution discouraging the city’s police from following the USA Patriot Act, which Congress enacted after Sept. 11. Mayor Wellington Webb backed up the courageous council — they’re fighting for civil rights, after all — by promising to incorporate the resolution into police policy. The resolution discourages the police from investigating groups or individuals based on their country of origin or immigration status.

What’s so disturbing about this is that the police are being discouraged from asking these questions in the course of criminal investigations! If you’re arrested for beating your wife, after all, what business do the police have inquiring about your visa status? Or your country of origin, should it turn out your visa has expired? These things have nothing to do with the crime at hand (pardon the pun), the argument goes.

Indeed. We wouldn’t want to burden suspects with questions. I mean, you’d think we were at war or something, what with all these vexing inconveniences we’re imposing on our criminal class…

Listen: I wouldn’t mind joining Oregon in its stand on Death with Dignity legislation, but with this (Oregon law enforcement, you’ll recall, is likewise resisting the PATRIOT Act)? Have these bureaucrats gone insane?

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