Post by RS Davis on Mar 22, 2004 11:17:46 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Harry Goslin Wrote:[/glow]As any thinking American knows, nothing has done more to destroy Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures than the War on Drugs. Among feeble minds, so long as dope-smoking maggots and crack-snorting dirtbags get their doors kicked in by the authorities, our country will be safer, stronger, and more moral. When the evil elements among us are swept away, the land will surely bathe in the sunshine of righteousness.
As the story goes, if you live a good clean life, obey the law, pay your taxes, and don’t say, write, or read too many bad things about the government, you should have no need to fear that your liberties will be violated. Refusing police requests to search your person or property, running from authorities – or through airports, withdrawing or depositing large amounts of money, purchasing or borrowing "subversive" books, nowadays suggests evil intentions. Bad individuals must be made to yield so that the many can be safer, more secure, and lest we forget, more free.
Despite these fantasies, violations of the Fourth Amendment to eradicate drugs and fight terrorism attack all Americans. To think that life, liberty, and property are secure because an individual chooses to refrain from such activities is insane. The history of the twentieth century, from Prohibition to the War on Drugs, from World War I to the War on Terrorism, proves that law has been nothing more than a license for government to commit murder and theft in the name of security and safety. "Good" citizenship will never hold up as a defense against government thugs intent on imprisoning, killing, or taking property, all in the name of enforcing "the law."
As the story goes, if you live a good clean life, obey the law, pay your taxes, and don’t say, write, or read too many bad things about the government, you should have no need to fear that your liberties will be violated. Refusing police requests to search your person or property, running from authorities – or through airports, withdrawing or depositing large amounts of money, purchasing or borrowing "subversive" books, nowadays suggests evil intentions. Bad individuals must be made to yield so that the many can be safer, more secure, and lest we forget, more free.
Despite these fantasies, violations of the Fourth Amendment to eradicate drugs and fight terrorism attack all Americans. To think that life, liberty, and property are secure because an individual chooses to refrain from such activities is insane. The history of the twentieth century, from Prohibition to the War on Drugs, from World War I to the War on Terrorism, proves that law has been nothing more than a license for government to commit murder and theft in the name of security and safety. "Good" citizenship will never hold up as a defense against government thugs intent on imprisoning, killing, or taking property, all in the name of enforcing "the law."
- Rick
Further reading:
Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It: A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs by James P. Gray
Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use by Jacob Sullum
...when he's around