Editorial Page Editor Greg Kesich’s column in the July 26 Maine Sunday Telegram is a timely reminder. The post-9/11 “war” on terror the country is fighting has morphed into providing the basis upon which the current and recent past administrations see fit to attack individuals who are protesting while largely exercising their individual rights to assemble and speak freely. To the extent individuals violate the law, protesters and police enforcers, local or federal, should be held accountable.

The last I read there are 14 U.S. government agencies with police powers. That seems excessive, and after Nov. 3, we ought to revisit this and other related government mechanisms designed to infringe on our constitutional and legal rights.

In the meantime, it seems to me that the Homeland Security Department, its “acting director” and the forces he’s deployed in Portland, Oregon, and probably elsewhere, at the behest of a “leader” who considers himself above the law, should be accountable to the laws of the land. If they violate the law locally, they should be charged and arrested as should we all.

Oliver Andrews III
Phippsburg