VIEWSrnAnarcho-Tyranny, U.S.A.rnby Samuel Francisrn^ ^ ^ – ” ^rn- *-^.rnOn the morning of September 22,1993, a law-abiding citizenrnnamed B.W. Sanders was driving his car down thernstreet in Raleigh, North Carolina, when all of a sudden hernfound himself flagged down by a policeman and presented withrna ticket for $25, Mr. Sanders, it turned out. had not been wearingrnhis seat belt, and under a new state law, that crime carriesrnthe penalty he received. But in this case it was not just a trafficrncop who flagged down Mr. Sanders. It was a force of somernsix dozen police officers as well as the governor of North Carolinarnhimself, James B. Hunt. The governor was searching forrna photo-op with which to advertise both the new seat belt lawrnand his own personal devotion to law and order. Not onlv thern70 or more police officers but also an innumerable supply ofrnnewspaper reporters and TV newsmen were on the scene tornrecord the governor’s triumph over the forces of lawlessness,rnand the next day Mr. Sanders’ wicked ways were recorded in thernpublic press for his family, his employers, his neighbors, and indeedrnposterity to gander at. To make doubly certain that criminalsrnlike Mr. Sanders got the message loud and clear, GovernorrnHunt held a news conference near the state capital andrnharangued a crowd of some 150 police officers and state troopers,rnwho were able to take time off from the apprehension ofrnpublic enemies like Mr. Sanders to attend the governor’s words.rn”I took an oath to protect the people of North Carolina,” intonedrnthe Tar Heel State’s answer to Dirty Harry, “and this isrnone way we must do it. . . . Folks, we’re serious. We mean it.rnWe’re going to do this.” And indeed, serious he is. As part ofrnSamuel Francis, a nationally syndicated columnist for thernWashington Times, delivered this speech at the 1993 meetingrnof the John Randolph Club.rnthe war on the unbuckled seat belt crisis, the Raleigh News andrnObserver reported, “Law officers in all 100 counties [of thernstate] will intensify their efforts to find and cite motorists notrnusing their seat belts. Agencies will compete against eachrnother, winning cash for turning in the best performance.”rnGovernor Hunt’s grandstanding might be harmless enoughrnwere it not for certain other facts about certain other crimes inrnNorth Carolina that also sometimes make the news. Only arnweek before the apprehension and public humiliation of Mr.rnSanders, the same newspaper reported on the state’s prison crisis.rnIt seems that North Carolina has another new law in additionrnto the one on seat belts. This other law, passed by thernGeneral Assembly, imposes a cap on how man’ inmates can bernincarcerated in the state prison, and the crisis is that, under thisrncap, most of the inmates now eligible for parole were imprisonedrnfor violent and assaultive crimes. Most of the less dangerousrncriminals have already been turned loose, and now thernprison system must release public enemies even more dangerousrnthan drivers who do not buckle their seat belts. Since lastrnJune, no less than 14 parolees (including one of the men nowrncharged with the murder of Michael Jordan’s father) havernbeen arrested and charged with murder, and another parolee,rna veteran of the state’s death row, murdered his girlfriend andrnthen committed suicide, thereby unfairly depriving GovernorrnI lunt of vet another photo-op. Last August alone, North Carolinarnparoled 3,700 prison inmates. One might think that if therngovernor of the state and the 150 police officers and staterntroopers who took time out of their public jobs to listen to himrnslap himself on the back for busting poor Mr. Sanders werernreally interested in upholding their oaths of office, they mightrnturn their attention to the results of releasing hardened and vi-rn14/CHRONICLESrnrnrn