This letter is in response to Doug Clark's column (Feb. 15) about Greensboro's "little band of radicals."

First of all, the seven students who were arrested were unaware that the man who was videotaping license plates was a police officer, and he refused to identify himself as such until after they were in the paddy wagon. Just as a private citizen has the right to videotape license plates, other citizens, even radicals, even communists, still have the right to stand where they choose.

Secondly, Clark says that because the Greensboro Police Department failed to watch the group of communists on Nov. 3, 1979, "its monitoring of the Jan. 31 demonstrations were understandable," given that the organizers had connections with the Communist Party.

Despite Clark's childish red-baiting, it wasn't the commies that the GPD should have kept its eyes on 27 years ago; it was the KKK and the neo-Nazis. Clark's twisting words make it sound like the communists were and are the threat, when that is simply not true. In both situations, the "radicals" did nothing wrong, unless protecting freedom and standing up for one's beliefs are too radical. I thought our soldiers are dying in Iraq to "protect our freedom." Behaving as free people can only honor their sacrifice.

Deborah Greene
Greensboro