
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 19, 1993                   TAG: 9305190615
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SELF-PROMOTION WAS GOAL IN WACO

IN THE COMING months as we hear various government agencies justify their actions in the Branch Davidian fiasco and present the Davidians as fire-breathing monsters, we must keep in mind that yet another government agency put headlines and self-promotion above good judgment.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms says it was only serving papers on the Branch Davidians. Yeah, sure. David Koresh was known to jog and could have been picked up any day of the week, beheading the beast, a long accepted police tactic. This would not have served the purpose of those who planned and approved a military-like raid on a potential hostage situation involving so many children. The purpose was a high profile, prime time, front page, budget-enhancing coup. They got headlines, all right.

This tragedy should put under the microscope the increasing number of questionable police actions whose prime purpose seem to be profile-enhancement and property confiscation. It is worth remembering that Germany's SS Corps was a Nazi party entity and not a government-funded agency. Although hardly image-intensive, the SS had to become self-sustaining and did that by taking property from people unpopular with the government. Given this admittedly extreme historical lesson, perhaps the tax-supported police effort we have had in the past would be preferable to a self-supporting one that several agencies seem to envy, and a lower profile but efficient effort would suffice.

It seems probable that good, efficient and honest police would not thrive in a system dedicated to property confiscation and self-promotion, and the consequences of that would be untenable. DAVID AMES ROANOKE

by CNB