I intended to write to congratulate Easthampton’s interim mayor, Salem Derby, for stopping plans to install surveillance cameras around the city, when the Supreme Court decided that law enforcement agencies can stop, question, and detain people based on their appearance, such as brown skin, where they congregate, their languages, and the types of work they do. Actually, the two issues are closely related. They entail making broad, negative assumptions about people based on superficial characteristics. It’s not much of a stretch to equate this with the brutal detention and extermination of Jews, gypsies, and other “undesirables” in Nazi Germany based on their dress, their languages, their places of worship, and their lifestyles. Is this where we are headed?
In this country we supposedly have the right to privacy, to live freely, without unreasonable searches and seizures. The Trump administration’s actions violate our fundamental rights. Who is next? Since most mass shooters are around age 34, white, and male, should we round up everyone who meets that description and hold them until they can prove that they have no bad intentions? Or, even worse, just send them to a jail in a third-world country, without any due process? It’s time for us to unite against these types of evil practices, to stand up for what makes America the shining beacon on a hill. Let’s make our voices heard!
Susan Grant
Easthampton