South Texas Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 35, Ed. 1 Friday, October 12, 1990 Page: 3 of 12
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October !2,1990-3
ENTRE NOSOTROS
SIC
Are all laws enforced?
By Bishop Rene H. Gracida
Recently, 1 was asked by Deputy Ruben
Rodriguez, president of the newly organ-
ized group Officers for Life, to furnish him
with a letter which he might incorporate
into a pamphlet which would be made
available to the membership of that or-
ganization.
The thrust of the letter was to offer
encouragement to law inforcemeni offi-
cers seeking conscience exemption from
duty at an abortuary where they might be
required to escort a pregnant woman into
the abortuary' for the purpose of killing the
child in her womb.
I had proposed to Deputy Rodriguez that
if officers were not able to obtain a routine
reassignment to another duly, they should
seek legislative relief rocking such con-
science exemption a matter of official
policy. Such an exemption would not apply
to any and all crises of conscience, but
would be lim ited specifically to the case of
duty at an abortuary.
There is certainly a precedent for such
conscientious objection/exemption in our
nation. Conscientius objector status has
long been available to those subject to the
military' draft. Similarly, the courts have
granted such exemption to nurses who
might be assigned to assist a doctor in a
general hospital in performing abortions.
Law enforcement officers, it seems to
me and to many others, should have the
same right to be assigned to other duty if
they sincerely believe that abortion is nothing
less than the killing of a human being in
the womb.
At no time have I ever suggested that
law enforcement officers should refuse to
obey the orders of their superior officers. I
have suggested that every law enforce-
ment officer has the moral obligation and
Rev. Deacon Juan Vasquez has
been appoointed as Parochial Dea-
con at S i. James Church in Becvillc,
effective July 2.
Rev. Deacon Salvador Madrigal
has been appointed as Parochial
Deacon at St. Joseph Church in
Laredo and as Associate Director to
Jail and Refugee Ministry of the
Western Vicariate, effective Sept.
14.
Rev. Deacon Mario Rivera has
been appointed as Parochial Dea-
con at St. Joseph Church in Alice
and as Area Coordinator of the
Cursillo Movement, effective Sept.
14.
Rev. Deacon Luis Trevino has
been appointed as Parochial Dea-
con atSt. Joseph Church in Beeville,
effective ScpL 14.
Rev. Deacon Tiburcio Garcia
has been appointed as Parochial
Deacon at St. Martin Church in
Kingsville, effective Sept 14.
Rev. Deacon George Phillips has
been appointed as Parochial Dea-
con at St. Pius X Church in Corpus
Christi, effective Sept, 14.
Rev. Deacon William Cieavelin
has been appointed as Parochial
Deacon at St. Thomas the Apostle
duty before God to enforce laws with
minimum coercion or force.
All officers have a serious obligation to
respect the fundamental human dignity of
every person, even those obviously guilty
of serious crimes. It should be self-evident
that when arresting a person for a misde-
meanor the use of force is wrong and
brutality is never pcrmissablc.
Some people have charged me with
advocating that law enforcement officers
do not have to enforce all laws and that
they can pick and choose which laws they
will enforce. These same people have
accused me of trying to bring our commu-
nity toa state of anarchy. Nothing could be
further from the truth.
What I have said is that when an officer
judges that the application of the law in a
particular case results in injustice rather
than justice, he should exercise his discre-
tionary power to act or not act. In the case
of indirectly assisting women to kill their
unborn babies in an abortuary, the officer
should seek the conscientious objection
relier I have proposed above.
These same people seem to be of the
opinion that every law should be enforced—
regardless of its validity—until it is re-
pealed. That seems to be the editorial
position of the Caller Times. That is an
absurd position for any responsible person
to take.
First of all, law officers do have and
should have discretionary power to en-
force the taw. Secondly, there arc many
laws on the statute books which arc out-of-
date and should not be enforced.
Let us examine the first case: law offi-
cers have and should have discretionary
power to enforce laws. Many drivers have
had the experience of exceeding the speed
limit or of violating some other motor
vehicle law and of being stopped by a
25.
Rev. Deacon Tony Barbour has
been appointed as Parochial Deacon
at St. Thomas Aquinas Collegiate
Parish in Kingsville, effective Sept.
25.
Rev. Deacon Roland Ouellette
has been appointed as Associate Di-
rector to Cemeteries for the Dio-
cese; and has been assigned to be
certified in the CPE Program at
Memorial Medical Center, effec-
tive Sept. 25.
Rev. Deacon Lupe Vasquez has
been appointed as Parochial Deacon
at St. Thomas More Collegiate Par-
ish in Corpus Christi, effective Oet.1,
Rev. Gonzalo Guzman, OFM,
has been appointed Pastor of Our
Lady of Guadalupe Church, Hcbbron-
ville, effective immediately.
Rev. Flavio Sanchez, OFM, has
been appointed Parochiai Vicar of
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church,
Hebbronville, effective immediately.
By order of the Most Reverend
patrolman. Usually one is given cither a
ticket or a written citation warning thrt
offendernottodoitagain. But sometimes,
as has happened to me, the officer merely
gives a verbal warning and lets the of-
fender go free.
Attorneys who practice family law tell
me that it is rare for an officer to arrest the
husband when they respond to a call from
the wife accusing her husband of physi-
cally abusing her. Even when the woman
shows cvidenccof having been beaten, the
officers rarely arrest the husband unless
they have actually seen the man beating
the woman. That is a bad exercise of
discretion, I might add.
Simi larly, a woman who has been beaten
by her husband on several occasions may
get a restraining order to prevent the man
from even entering the family home. 1 am
told that when he violates that order and
enters the home and the wife calls the
police, the man is seldom arrested. An-
other bad exercise of discretion, but it
proves thatpoliccdocxcrciscdiscrction in
enforcing laws.
Now let us look atthcsecond case; some
laws arc so out-of-date they should not be
enforced, yet they arc still on the statute
books. Such is the case with laws which
make acts of fornication, adultery and
sodomy a felony crime. Mind you, I am
not justifying these sins—they are sins!
However, it is now a commonly accepted
principle in American jurisp- tdence that
list all sins should be made crimes punish-
able by fines and imprisonment.
About five years ago police in Atlanta
raided a house suspected of being used for
drug sales. They found no drugs, but they
did find two gay men in bed engaged in an
act of sodomy. They arrested the men and
charged them with a felony under an old
Georgia law.
The liberal press in the United States
went crazy. How absurd, they charged, for
the Georgia police to enforce an archaic
law and charge two consenting adults with
a felony. The American Civil Liberties
Union came to their defense and the case
went all the way to the United States
Supreme Court, where, wonder of won-
ders, the same court which gave us Roe vs.
Wade upheld the Georgia law and the two
men went to prison.
The Texas Penal Code (#21.07) pro-
vides that an indiv idual commits a crime if
persons knowingly engage in an act of
sexual contact in a public place. Sexual
contact is defined as meaning the touch-
ing of a private part of a person with
another “with intent to arouse or gratify
the sexual desire of any person.”
Do my critics propose that Lhc police
arrest every couple engaged in such activ-
ity on Padre Island? Do they propose that
where adultery ischarged in a divorcecasc
the guilty parties should be charged with
the crime of adultery? It is a felony crime
in some jurisdictions. What about big-
amy? We rarely hear about people being
arrested for bigamy these days, except
perhaps for the cases reported in the last
year or Lwo in Utah.
The Texas Penal Code (#25.01) pro-
vides that an individual commits the crime
of bigamy if he (she) is legally married
and purports to marry or docs marry a
person other than his spouse, or lives with
a person other than his (her) spouse under
the appearance of being married; or he
(she) knows that a person other than his
(her) spouse is married and he (she) pur-
ports to marry or docs marry that person or
lives with that person in this state under the
appearance of being married.
Bigamy is a felony in Texas. Given the
widespread practice of cohabitation in our
society today, do my critics propose that
the police should begin to arrest cohabi-
tating couples for bigamy?
Laws arc continually becoming archaic
and are being repealed. It generally takes a
long time Tor such laws to be repealed.
Gradually society shifts from approving
such laws to disapproving them. At pre-
cisely what point law officers should stop
enforcing them is extremely difficult to
say.
Legislators arc generally loathe to ap-
pear to condone behavior which society
has long approved of. In the meantime the
laws are on the books and are not enforced
by police because they are among the first
to become aware of the obsolescence of
such laws. Here are a few examples:
—In Oklahoma it is/was unlawful to
drink beer in your underwear. ;
—In Boston, it is/was unlawful to kiss
an actor during a state performance.
—In parts of Texas it is/was against the
law to own a copy of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica—because it contains a liquor
formula.
—In Wisconsin it is/was unlawful for
more than one person to bathe in a tub at
one time.
—In Alabama husbands havc/had the
right to chastize their wives w ith “slicks no
larger than the thumb.”
To summarize, laws should be obeyed
and they should be enforced. But since it
takes a long time for bad laws, crazy laws, ;
absurd laws, unjust laws and discrimina-
tory laws to be removed from the statute \
books, it is good that law enforcement
officers have the power of discretion in
judging when circumstances warrant their
non-cnforccmcnt.
If it were otherwise, we could not build
enough jails toholdall those who would be -
arrested and our courts would be even
morecloggcd than they now arc with cases 9
waiting to be tried. a
Whatshouldan officer do when his con- m
science is troubled by the prospect of hav- f|
ing to enforce an unjust law? He should Jl
read my Pastoral Letter “Choose Life, Not a
Death!", especially the Appendix on “For- M
mal and Material Cooperation in Sin.” 1
Bishop of Corpus Christi
Official Appointments
Church inRobstown, effective Sept.
* At no time have I ever suggested that law
enforcement officers should refuse to obey the
orders of their superior officers. I have suggested
that every law enforcement officer has the moral
obligation and duty before God to enforce laws with
minimum coercion or force”
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Freeman, Robert E. South Texas Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 35, Ed. 1 Friday, October 12, 1990, newspaper, October 12, 1990; Corpus Christi, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth840611/m1/3/?q=music: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .