This article sums up US civil rights situation perfectly.
(Short version: your freedom got flushed down the crapper.)
http://lewrockwell.com/whitehead/whitehead31.1.html
By John Whitehead
".......The Fourth Amendment, which assures that "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated," was included in the Bill of Rights in response to the oppressive way British soldiers treated American colonists through their use of "Writs of Assistance." These were court orders that authorized British agents to conduct general searches of premises for contraband. ...... It quickly became apparent to many colonists that their homes were no longer their castles.
Revolutionary patriot James Otis was Advocate-General when the legality of these warrants came under question by the colonists. Called upon to defend that legality, he promptly resigned his office. After living through an age of oppressive policies under the British empire, those of the founding generation, such as Otis, wanted to ensure that Americans would never have to face intrusive government measures again.
Fast forward 250 years and we seem to be right back where we started, living in an era of oppressive government policies and a militarized police whose unauthorized, forceful intrusions into our homes and our lives have been increasingly condoned by the courts. In fact, although the Fourth Amendments protections against unreasonable searches and seizures go far beyond an actual police search of your home, as I detail in my commentary, "Renewing the Patriot Act: Who Will Protect Us from Our Government?" the passage of the USA Patriot Act opened the door to other kinds of invasions, especially unwarranted electronic intrusions into your most personal and private transactions, including phone, mail, computer and medical records. When added to this list of abuses, two recent court decisions one from the U.S. Supreme Court and the other from the Indiana Supreme Court both handed down in the same week, sound the death knell for our Fourth Amendment rights.
In an 8-1 ruling in Kentucky v. King, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively decimated the Fourth Amendment by giving police more leeway to break into homes or apartments without a warrant when in search of illegal drugs which they suspect might be destroyed if notice were given. In this particular case, police officers in pursuit of a suspect they had seen engage in a drug deal in a parking lot followed him into an apartment complex. Once there, the police followed the smell of burning marijuana to an apartment where, after knocking and announcing themselves, they promptly kicked the door in allegedly on the pretext that evidence of drugs might be destroyed. Despite the fact that it turned out to be the wrong suspect, the wrong apartment and a violation of every tenet that stands between us and a police state, the Court sanctioned the warrantless raid, saying that police had acted lawfully and that was all that mattered. Yet as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the lone voice of dissent among the justices, remarked, "How secure do our homes remain if police, armed with no warrant, can pound on doors at will and ... forcibly enter?"
In the second case, the Indiana Supreme Court actually stepped beyond the constitutional parameters of the case before them to broadly rule in Barnes v. State that people dont have the right to resist police officers who enter their homes illegally. The court rationalized their 3-2 ruling legitimizing any unlawful police entry into a home as a "public policy" decision. On its face, the case itself is relatively straightforward: An Indiana woman called 911 during an argument with her husband. When the police arrived, the man blocked and then shoved an officer who tried to enter his home without a warrant. Despite the fact that the wife told police her husband hadnt hit her, the man was shocked with a stun gun and arrested. Insisting that it would be safer for all concerned to let police proceed even with an illegal action and sort it out later in court with a civil lawsuit, the court held that residents cant resist police who enter their home whatever the reason. The problem, of course, is that anything short of complete and utter acquiescence and compliance constitutes resistance. Thus, even the supposedly protected act of free speech a simple "Wait, this is my home. Whats this about?" constitutes resistance.
Many are understandably up in arms about these decisions, but the courts are not really introducing anything new into our lives they are merely reflecting and reinforcing the reality of the age in which we live, and that is one in which the citizen is subordinate to government and what the "state" be it the police, the schools or local or federal agents says goes.
...... School districts are increasingly teaming with law enforcement to create what some are calling the "schoolhouse to jailhouse track" by imposing a "double dose" of punishment: suspension or expulsion from school, accompanied by an arrest by the police and a trip to juvenile court. In this way, having failed to learn much in the way of civic education and/or the Bill of Rights while in school, young people are being browbeaten into believing that they have no true rights and government authorities have total power and can violate constitutional rights whenever they see fit.
...... The friendly local sheriff in The Andy Griffith Show has been shelved for the federal gun-toting terrorist killers in popular television shows and movies. ......armed police officers have become a force to be reckoned with. And its not just local law enforcement. As the federalization of law enforcement continues to grow, more and more federal agents are armed. In fact, federal agencies employ more than 100,000 full-time personnel authorized to make arrests and carry firearms.
...... the police have become a "standing" or permanent army, one composed of full-time professional soldiers who do not disband, which is exactly what the Founders feared. Those who drafted the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights had an enormous distrust of permanent armies. They knew that despotic governments have used standing armies to control the people and impose tyranny. James Madison, in a speech before the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1789, proclaimed: "A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home." As predicted, these very same "instruments of tyranny" are now often being used to wage war against the American people. Thus, it would seem that we have become the enemy.
.....
Then came the "no-knock" raids. At first, no-knock raids were generally employed only in situations where innocent lives were determined to be at imminent risk. That changed in the early 1980s, when a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of these paramilitary units in routine police work resulted in a militarization of American civilian law enforcement. The governments so-called "war on drugs" also spurred a significant rise in the use of SWAT teams for raids. In some jurisdictions, drug warrants are only served by SWAT teams or similar paramilitary units and oftentimes are executed with forced, unannounced entry into the home. Approximately 40,000 "no-knock raids are carried out each year, usually conducted by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers prepared for war.
.... We have succeeded in forfeiting one of the principles that has been a hallmark of American democracy the idea that every person is innocent until proven guilty. This is such a simple concept, yet it undergirds some of our Constitutions greatest protections, such as the right to an attorney and a fair hearing, protection from unreasonable searches and seizures and the right to privacy, among others.
.....Where law enforcement officials once looked to us as their employers, we now too often look to them as our wardens and jailers, as something to fear a notion they encourage. This mindset has been displayed at SWAT team conventions held across the country. As one former police chief said about a convention he attended: "Officers at the conference were wearing these very disturbing shirts. On the front, there were pictures of SWAT officers dressed in dark uniforms, wearing helmets, and holding submachine guns. Below was written: We dont do drive-by shootings. On the back, there was a picture of a demolished house. Below was written: We stop." SWAT magazine also abounds in ads featuring soldiers in full military garb and features articles such as "Polite, Professional, and Prepared to Kill."
........
The increasing militarization of the police did not occur suddenly, in a single precinct. Nor can it be traced back to a single leader or event. Rather, the pattern is so subtle that most American citizens have hardly been aware of it. Little by little, police authority has expanded, one weapon after another has been added to the police arsenal, and one exception after another has been made to the standards that have historically restrained police authority. Yet when analyzed as a whole, this trend toward militarization is undeniable, and when left unchecked, it amounts to nothing less than the end of American liberty.
(Short version: your freedom got flushed down the crapper.)
http://lewrockwell.com/whitehead/whitehead31.1.html
By John Whitehead
".......The Fourth Amendment, which assures that "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated," was included in the Bill of Rights in response to the oppressive way British soldiers treated American colonists through their use of "Writs of Assistance." These were court orders that authorized British agents to conduct general searches of premises for contraband. ...... It quickly became apparent to many colonists that their homes were no longer their castles.
Revolutionary patriot James Otis was Advocate-General when the legality of these warrants came under question by the colonists. Called upon to defend that legality, he promptly resigned his office. After living through an age of oppressive policies under the British empire, those of the founding generation, such as Otis, wanted to ensure that Americans would never have to face intrusive government measures again.
Fast forward 250 years and we seem to be right back where we started, living in an era of oppressive government policies and a militarized police whose unauthorized, forceful intrusions into our homes and our lives have been increasingly condoned by the courts. In fact, although the Fourth Amendments protections against unreasonable searches and seizures go far beyond an actual police search of your home, as I detail in my commentary, "Renewing the Patriot Act: Who Will Protect Us from Our Government?" the passage of the USA Patriot Act opened the door to other kinds of invasions, especially unwarranted electronic intrusions into your most personal and private transactions, including phone, mail, computer and medical records. When added to this list of abuses, two recent court decisions one from the U.S. Supreme Court and the other from the Indiana Supreme Court both handed down in the same week, sound the death knell for our Fourth Amendment rights.
In an 8-1 ruling in Kentucky v. King, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively decimated the Fourth Amendment by giving police more leeway to break into homes or apartments without a warrant when in search of illegal drugs which they suspect might be destroyed if notice were given. In this particular case, police officers in pursuit of a suspect they had seen engage in a drug deal in a parking lot followed him into an apartment complex. Once there, the police followed the smell of burning marijuana to an apartment where, after knocking and announcing themselves, they promptly kicked the door in allegedly on the pretext that evidence of drugs might be destroyed. Despite the fact that it turned out to be the wrong suspect, the wrong apartment and a violation of every tenet that stands between us and a police state, the Court sanctioned the warrantless raid, saying that police had acted lawfully and that was all that mattered. Yet as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the lone voice of dissent among the justices, remarked, "How secure do our homes remain if police, armed with no warrant, can pound on doors at will and ... forcibly enter?"
In the second case, the Indiana Supreme Court actually stepped beyond the constitutional parameters of the case before them to broadly rule in Barnes v. State that people dont have the right to resist police officers who enter their homes illegally. The court rationalized their 3-2 ruling legitimizing any unlawful police entry into a home as a "public policy" decision. On its face, the case itself is relatively straightforward: An Indiana woman called 911 during an argument with her husband. When the police arrived, the man blocked and then shoved an officer who tried to enter his home without a warrant. Despite the fact that the wife told police her husband hadnt hit her, the man was shocked with a stun gun and arrested. Insisting that it would be safer for all concerned to let police proceed even with an illegal action and sort it out later in court with a civil lawsuit, the court held that residents cant resist police who enter their home whatever the reason. The problem, of course, is that anything short of complete and utter acquiescence and compliance constitutes resistance. Thus, even the supposedly protected act of free speech a simple "Wait, this is my home. Whats this about?" constitutes resistance.
Many are understandably up in arms about these decisions, but the courts are not really introducing anything new into our lives they are merely reflecting and reinforcing the reality of the age in which we live, and that is one in which the citizen is subordinate to government and what the "state" be it the police, the schools or local or federal agents says goes.
...... School districts are increasingly teaming with law enforcement to create what some are calling the "schoolhouse to jailhouse track" by imposing a "double dose" of punishment: suspension or expulsion from school, accompanied by an arrest by the police and a trip to juvenile court. In this way, having failed to learn much in the way of civic education and/or the Bill of Rights while in school, young people are being browbeaten into believing that they have no true rights and government authorities have total power and can violate constitutional rights whenever they see fit.
...... The friendly local sheriff in The Andy Griffith Show has been shelved for the federal gun-toting terrorist killers in popular television shows and movies. ......armed police officers have become a force to be reckoned with. And its not just local law enforcement. As the federalization of law enforcement continues to grow, more and more federal agents are armed. In fact, federal agencies employ more than 100,000 full-time personnel authorized to make arrests and carry firearms.
...... the police have become a "standing" or permanent army, one composed of full-time professional soldiers who do not disband, which is exactly what the Founders feared. Those who drafted the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights had an enormous distrust of permanent armies. They knew that despotic governments have used standing armies to control the people and impose tyranny. James Madison, in a speech before the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1789, proclaimed: "A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home." As predicted, these very same "instruments of tyranny" are now often being used to wage war against the American people. Thus, it would seem that we have become the enemy.
.....
Then came the "no-knock" raids. At first, no-knock raids were generally employed only in situations where innocent lives were determined to be at imminent risk. That changed in the early 1980s, when a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of these paramilitary units in routine police work resulted in a militarization of American civilian law enforcement. The governments so-called "war on drugs" also spurred a significant rise in the use of SWAT teams for raids. In some jurisdictions, drug warrants are only served by SWAT teams or similar paramilitary units and oftentimes are executed with forced, unannounced entry into the home. Approximately 40,000 "no-knock raids are carried out each year, usually conducted by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers prepared for war.
.... We have succeeded in forfeiting one of the principles that has been a hallmark of American democracy the idea that every person is innocent until proven guilty. This is such a simple concept, yet it undergirds some of our Constitutions greatest protections, such as the right to an attorney and a fair hearing, protection from unreasonable searches and seizures and the right to privacy, among others.
.....Where law enforcement officials once looked to us as their employers, we now too often look to them as our wardens and jailers, as something to fear a notion they encourage. This mindset has been displayed at SWAT team conventions held across the country. As one former police chief said about a convention he attended: "Officers at the conference were wearing these very disturbing shirts. On the front, there were pictures of SWAT officers dressed in dark uniforms, wearing helmets, and holding submachine guns. Below was written: We dont do drive-by shootings. On the back, there was a picture of a demolished house. Below was written: We stop." SWAT magazine also abounds in ads featuring soldiers in full military garb and features articles such as "Polite, Professional, and Prepared to Kill."
........
The increasing militarization of the police did not occur suddenly, in a single precinct. Nor can it be traced back to a single leader or event. Rather, the pattern is so subtle that most American citizens have hardly been aware of it. Little by little, police authority has expanded, one weapon after another has been added to the police arsenal, and one exception after another has been made to the standards that have historically restrained police authority. Yet when analyzed as a whole, this trend toward militarization is undeniable, and when left unchecked, it amounts to nothing less than the end of American liberty.
