What is a state of emergency?

The Editor, Sir:

Please permit space in your publication to raise the following issues:

The extension of the state of emergency (SOE) is not supported by constitutional principles. To tamper with our Constitution out of any kind of expediency is dangerous for the rule of law. Ifwe can tamper with our Constitution at will, no law is sacred and it will not be long beforewe could find ourselves in a police state.

Are there sufficient powers under non-SOE provisions for the police to fight crime effectively? Will the SOE provide an excuse for the police not to explore these provision? Arethe police using the SOE as asubstitute for real investigative crime fighting? Is the SOE a short cut?

Is crime really fought when you lock up thousands of people in sub-human conditions without access to the courts? Is it effective policing when wecannot marshall enough evidence tosecure a convictionand will eventually have to let them out? Wouldn't proper investigative policing which puts them away permanently be a better, more enduringsolution?

Is it the SOE which has the criminals on the run or is it because the policehave steppedup their presence in the volatile communities?On what empirical basishas anyonedetermined that increased police presence cannot achieve the same endsas the SOE? And if you cannot proveit, why should I take your word that it is the SOE that is reaping success?

And what of the innocent persons who are affected adversely by the SOE? Do they matter any at all? Wereeveryone equallyin danger of being held for months without bail? Wouldwe allbe so apt to supportan extendedSOE? Is the SOE good enough for the poor but not for the rest of society?

How long is long enough for the SOE? And after this, what would constitute "an emergency"? A few youths fighting at a football match? A few citizens protesting a police shooting? What exactly is a state of emergency?

Expediency has often been used as an excuse for oppression. Let us be very careful whatwe ask for.We justmight get it. And those of us who spring from an ancestry of oppressed people and who continue to live and work among our people, we cannot afford to be so cavalier with our hard-wonfundamental rights and constitutional freedoms.

I am, etc.,

STANLEY REDWOOD

Mandeville, Manchester