Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Right move in Miami

Tuesday, April 25, 2000 | 9:28 a.m.

To Janet Reno, attorney general of the United States:

No one said this job was going to be easy.

I, along with probably millions of other Americans, watched in stunned silence as videotapes replayed the three-minute raid by federal law enforcement officers on the home of Lazaro Gonzalez, the great-uncle of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez. We saw the swiftness of the action, and we saw the picture of a frightened boy in the closet in the arms of the man who saved his life being confronted by a heavily armed agent of the United States government.

A few hours later, we were all treated to that picture of a beaming Elian in the arms of his overjoyed and grateful father, Juan Miguel, after the federal agents reunited the two Cuban citizens at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C.

Already the pictures of those two events -- the raid and the reunion -- have become worldwide household images. People will draw conclusions from them both and some will be warranted and most probably won't, because much of what people believe will be based on pure emotion and that solid bedrock of foundational thought -- politics.

And the one person who will bear the brunt of whatever criticism that results -- and believe me, we are never in short supply of that in this country -- is the attorney general. But, truth be told, she is probably the one player in this real-life soap opera who deserves kudos, not kicks, for the role she played.

Names such as Waco come to mind when we conjure up images of federal law enforcement actions that have gone bad, very bad. Men, women and children dying in a flaming building do nothing to bolster confidence in our ability to police ourselves. The fact that a Waco happens so rarely is not of great moment when the videotapes last forever and the replays are nonstop, so much so that the images never leave us.

It was against that backdrop -- of a federal action gone bad -- that Reno had to make the decisions she did that led up to the early-morning raid on Saturday that freed Elian to return to his father. It was a mind-set to avoid bloodshed at any cost -- a sometimes debilitating requirement for a law enforcement officer -- that drew the first round of criticism aimed her way. It also is part of the basis for the Monday-morning quarterbacking that is malevolently maligning our attorney general.

From the beginning of this five-month ordeal it was never a question of what was right or wrong. Clearly, that young child belonged with his father, and we had an obligation to return Elian to the man who loved him most, regardless of from whence he came. But it was from where he came that has been the problem from the outset because Cuba is not a nation that holds much moral or political suasion with the United States. It also is an island nation 90 miles from our shores that is a continuing reminder to hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans of the worst times in their lives. They will not -- they cannot -- forget that Fidel Castro is the tyrant who caused them to flee their homeland and the man who has caused their remaining relatives to live without any kind of freedom or human dignity.

That they are emotional on the subject is not only understandable but is expected because, in that respect, the Cuban-American community has been absolutely consistent ever since it landed on the shores of the United States and settled mostly in Miami. That they speak with a giant political stick is also apparent since, as a bloc, they have been able to swing elections on all levels. The upcoming presidential election in which Florida is an up-for-grabs prize is a political reality that has played no small part in the Elian saga. Understandably, it is hard for the rest of the country to view what has happened in Florida with the same emotionalism. It is easier for us to see the other side of the argument, the right side of the argument, that says the boy should be with his father.

By the way, the courts have also said the same thing. In the United States, absent fitness issues, we believe that children should be with their parents. Period.

And that's what Janet Reno had to accomplish. It would have been easier for her had she come from someplace other than Miami where her ties, her friends and her emotions were so intertwined with those of the people who first cared for and then held too long young Elian against the wishes of his father. Her desire to "work it out" and avoid any mishaps allowed those in the criticism game to castigate her for moving too slowly. In the end, those same people who said she didn't act swiftly and decisively enough are now saying she acted too decisively. When political considerations hang in the balance, logic usually takes a holiday.

Nevertheless, it was Reno's belief early Saturday morning that the relatives in Miami were playing her and her country for a fool, as they had in previous weeks, and that they really had no intention of allowing Elian to return to his father, the man who represented not a relative but a representative of the man they hated, Fidel Castro.

Once she decided that enough was enough -- she had all the court orders and papers she needed to enter that house and take the boy -- the only question to be answered was how to make it happen. And that's where Waco played a hand. Bloodshed was not an option. And every law enforcement professional will tell you that to avoid the worst, you must use surprise and an overwhelming and mind-stunning force. We all saw the pictures of the heavily armed federal agents. We also know that no one was hurt. From Janet Reno's perspective, the operation was a success.

Could it have been handled differently? Perhaps. But, given the intransigence and the emotions of the day, that option seemed less likely. In the end, the law had to be upheld. Just like it had to be upheld in Waco. In Waco, though, it did not turn out very well.

In Miami, it turned out very well. No one was hurt. The law was upheld. And, most importantly, little Elian is safe in the arms of his loving father where he belongs.

No one said the job would be easy, Attorney General Janet Reno. But you did it well, and you deserve a nation's gratitude. The pictures of that smiling little boy will forever tell the story. Brian Greenspun

is the editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

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