home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- <text id=90TT1298>
- <title>
- May 21, 1990: American Notes:Crime
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- May 21, 1990 John Sununu:Bush's Bad Cop
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 33
- American Notes
- CRIME
- A Vested Interest
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> As drug-related violence and semiautomatic assault rifles
- have spread across the nation, an increasing number of police
- departments have equipped their officers with bulletproof
- vests. Now drug dealers are following the lead. Over the past
- few years, police in Washington and other cities have noticed
- an upsurge in hoodlums clad in "soft body armor" capable of
- stopping a shot from a .357 Magnum, to say nothing of less
- powerful police sidearms.
- </p>
- <p> The drug merchants seem more interested in protecting
- themselves from trigger-happy rivals than from the cops. But
- the trend has prompted police to change their tactics. The
- prevalence of bulletproof vests not only forces officers to aim
- for the head if a gun-wielding suspect does not fall after
- being shot in the chest. It also, says Hubert Williams,
- president of the Washington-based Police Foundation, makes them
- more likely to shoot first.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-