Saturday, January 01, 2011

Having managed to shoot up from 15

to a balmy 36 degrees(back to 15 tonight), I have a conclusion:
It's cold out there.

Stuff to take care of, so just two things to point out at this time.
First, some more cases like this just might clear up some of the SWAT idiocy:
An Ecorse couple won a $215,000 judgment Tuesday against the city, retired Police Chief Jerry Copeland and two police officials stemming from a drug raid executed against the wrong house in 2008.
Wrong house?
The Phelps accused the city, Copeland and others of executing a search warrant on the wrong house in September 2008. The lawsuit claims Sgt. Cornelius Herring and Cpl. Timothy Sassak obtained a search warrant to raid the home next door based on a tip from a confidential informant.

Instead, the Phelps home was raided — a mix-up that happened during a SWAT team briefing session during which the wrong house was identified, according to the lawsuit.

Officers threw the couple to the floor, pushed Michael Phelps' head and face with the barrel of a gun and handcuffed his wife, according to the lawsuit
.
Lesson, class?
"Don't use the SWAT team unless it's actually needed. And make damn sure you have the right house before you kick in the doors and scare hell out of people."


Second, if you hadn't heard about a guy named Ezra Klein who said 'The Constitution is too old and confusing for people to understand', go here for a bit more on the matter.

Awright, one more: some of the latest "You will do what you're told, serf!" dirtbaggery from the TSA. You know, at some point they're going to do something so offensive that not only will the victim deck the offending bastard, but when they pile on the victim some of the other passengers are going to pile on the TSA; it's going to get especially interesting after that.

From one of the comments:
You do not have a right to fly. Our founding fathers wanted you to have the freedom to travel, state to state, but they never said you had a guaranteed right to any advancement in travel. Horse and buggy, or walking, was good enough for them, as it is for you. They could've no more predicted airplanes than the internet. You're free to waive your right to get on that airplane. Nobody is forcing you. This isn't like a search and seizure at your residence. I agree that nobody should be criminally charged for refusing the pat down. They just shouldn't be allowed to fly.
Which is like saying "They never foresaw the internet and the personal computer, so it doesn't really count in the 1st." And again, for how long was air travel just a travel option? Now we have government assholes telling us "We think it's a privilege for which we'll demand you give up your rights." And a bunch of people saying things like this to excuse people being felt up and irradiated by machines that haven't been properly tested.

2 comments:

Mattexian said...

The evils of incrementalism have already ruined the "right to travel" as envisioned by our Forefathers. If we operate a private vehicle, we need a license from the state to show that we can pass a test on operating it safely and within the law, then we have to register said vehicle with the state and/or county for purposes of taxation and "safety inspection." That usually requires accident insurance, driving up the cost of ownership. Finally, if you spy a DWI checkpoint ahead and you turn around to avoid it, that behavior is enough to give the police "reasonable suspicion" to stop you, not that you just don't want the hassle or implied tacit permission for this level of a police state in your daily life.

Even just the simple act of traveling on foot, or horseback or by bicycle (by this person's example), still requires carrying some form of a government-issued ID card (mind you, that had to be purchased, so it's not quite the same type of "govt-issued" that we think of when it comes to that phrase). Even then you might get harassed by the constabulary, for the mere act of being odd, as you're NOT in a motor vehicle, like everyone else. (It brings to mind that quote by Colonel Trautman in "First Blood"- "That's gonna look real good on his grave stone in Arlington: Here lies John Rambo, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, survivor of countless incursions behind enemy lines. Killed for vagrancy in Jerkwater, USA.")

The Freeholder said...

I believe certain certain groups also made a similar argument against the Second Amendment as well.