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Show Reprehensible Raid Was it law enforcement or a publicity stunt? That is a question that has come to the minds of many since hearing and reading about the Arizona raid on the town of Short Creek early Sunday morning. The more we think about it the more we are convinced that the Governor Govern-or of Arizona was much more interested in getting his name in the papers of the nation, getting in the news reels, in magazines and on the air than he was in enforcing the law. There is no doubt but that many of the residents of Short Creek have been breaking the law, and that something some-thing should have been done about it. But when the governor gov-ernor and the state police force arranged to have representatives rep-resentatives of newspapers, magazines, reporters and photographers pho-tographers from the wire services and reporters from the radio stations on hand for the raid, and escorted these people to the scene of the raid, it is evident that they were more interested in publicity than in law enforcement. It was a good break for the reporters and the photographers, photog-raphers, but it was a rather distasteful law enforcement practice. People of Utah and Arizona, including the governor of Arizona and the Arizona police officers, have long been aware of the situation at Short Creek, but very little has ever been done about it. When the publicity stunt was thought up the enforcement officers apparently became enthused about getting into the act. |