(AP) -- Nearly 11,000 sex offenders, gang members and other fugitives were swept up in what the Justice Department on Thursday called a sting targeting the "worst of the worst" criminals on the run.

In all, Gonzales said officials caught 10,733 fugitives -- including 1,659 sex offenders, 364 gang members and thousands of others sought on kidnapping, robbery, burglary, carjacking and weapons charges. More than 230 weapons were seized.

Does this CNN headline strike anyone else as odd? Almost 11,000 people arrested in only a few days... what reason would our government have in sitting on such a massive number of criminals? This sweep of arrest was code named, by Gonzales, Falcon III, there have been, obviously, two prior and similar sweeps of arrest in the last two years.

One reason, I can think of, they might have done this is as a PR stunt days before the elections - to look tough on crime. But it seems so open to ridicule because of their waiting for several months to arrest hundreds upon hundreds of suspected murderers. You would think the public would have a problem with this style of tactic.

So is there another reason besides PR? What other reason would our government have in practicing/ executing mass nationwide sweeps? Was it a dry run? Is the Falcon project no different than Rex 84? For those of you who don't recognize Rex 84 - it's full name is 'Readiness Exercise 1984 and it [from Wikipedia:] "was a plan by the US federal government to test their ability to detain large numbers of American citizens in case of massive civil unrest or national emergency."

I am not claiming that our government is preparing to arrest 5,000... 10,000... 15,000 people they deem "subversive" on a moments notice. But I am asking what other reasons can you think of for Falcon's existence?

I think it's worth putting this in perspective with the fact that our current administration has included text in acts, such as, the more well-known, Patriot Act that allow Bush to declare martial law in the US. I wonder how many thousands would take to the streets in protest? I wonder if our government would be prepared to, overnight, snuff out the leaders of such protest. Am I loosing it here? Please someone find me a third and less-concerning reason for arresting, at once, 11,000 criminals.