http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/05/riaa-warrantless-seizures/
Why is it that wearing a costume makes you do stupid things? Like trample on people’s property and rights?
I urge all costumed people to resist upholding unjust laws.
Just to throw this out there… There was a very interesting decision in Indiana recently with regard to warrantless entry. I hope you enjoy the Sheriff’s reply. Equally, I hope you enjoy the Tea Party reply. Sometimes I wonder what I’m still doing here (in Indiana, let alone the US).
Quoting from the second article:
LOL WUT
It also directly contradicts the wording of the decision itself:
Is this a case of the blind leading the blind?
Justin Ptak blogged on the main page about a similar situation not too long ago…
Tell me about it! All those little bastards begging for free candy!
Oh, you meant the cops…
Don’t know about that one. In all seriousness I often find myself getting into heated arguments with people when I don’t accept the, “I’m just enforcing the law,” argument from or about cops and their actions. I truly don’t know why people seem to think it’s okay to suspend individual ethical and moral judgement when you throw on a uniform. But I can certainly see how such a suspension of judgement would be in the state’s favor, and cause confusion and conflict among the populace.
A couple of thoughts here:
-
On one level, the ruling is based on an appeal to safety. This isn’t surprising to me. Too many people these days conflate all violence with aggressive violence.
-
On another level, the ruling seems to implicitly affirm the notion of police forces as gangs. Notice the phrase “without preventing the arrest” - how does the court know this? Of course, it doesn’t, but the assumption is that the arrest won’t be prevented by violent resistance. Essentially, the court is saying, “Okay, we now admit that police forces act as nothing more than rogue criminal gangs under the guise of legitimate authority, but we don’t see anything wrong with that.”
This won’t fly. And note that warrants-for-entry has been functionally dead for at least two decades… it’s purely ceremonial, the DA or chief of police can get a warrant any time of day or night without any representation from the party against whom the warrant is being issued and on the basis of criteria so vague and general that makes denial of a request for a search warrant almost impossible. Armed with the “warrant”, the goon-squad outfitted in uniforms meant to intimidate and terrify will smash down your front door and any attempt to defend yourself from the masked marauders who are magically legally protected by screaming the word “Police!” (as if no gang of thugs could ever think to scream “Police!”) will likely result in your death and, if not, charges for attempted murder (or murder if your’e lucky enough to actually kill one of the intruders).
There are no words to describe the theater of the absurd unfolding before our very eyes. It’s like people are so braindead, they can watch a History channel special on the terrifying tortures of the medieval ages then step outside their front door and start throwing cabbage at the shackled prisoners being led to their execution by being drawn and quartered. Didn’t anybody learn about habeus corpus in school, and why we have it? Didn’t they learn about “innocent until proven guilty”?
*sigh
Clayton -
Supreme Court - 8-1 decision:
Cops can break down your door if they think they smell marijuana