US$6G for more cops!

[Margaret Tarbet <tarbet@swaa.com>]

More cops, more prisons, fewer options...  Anyone still think the US
is going in the right direction?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton, celebrating new data for 1998
that show a record low number of serious violent crimes, is
proposing a five-year, $6 billion package to raise the ante on his
nearly fulfilled pledge to put 100,000 new officers on the beat
nationwide.

And then we have this gem...the principal's comment is interesting.

COTTSDALE, Arizona (AP) -- Sam Claiborn wrote an editorial in his
high school newspaper decrying a culture of violence and football
heroes of today who become the "spouse abusers, drunks and hamburger
flippers of tomorrow."

For his high-minded efforts, Claiborn says he got beaten up last
week -- by a football player [who got 2 days' in-school suspension
as punishment]. 

Saguaro High School Principal Mike Carden said Claiborn should have
been more careful in his wording in the paper, the Saguaro Sabercat.


"People have a right to a viewpoint that's controversial, but they
also have to put it out there in an appropriate fashion," Carden
said. "There were some inappropriate comments that were said that
people took objection to."