Police Check points in DC
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http://www.youtube.com/swf/l.swf?video_id=yBsxDef5IWI&rel=1&eurl=&iurl=http%3A//i.ytimg.com/vi/yBsxDef5IWI/default.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskKf3phZr2N2oEghsCLF29kZ&fs=1&hl=en
Type of Content: Video Hopefully not another taste of what's to come. thoughts? Read »
Created 5 weeks 5 days ago
Made popular 5 weeks 4 days ago |
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If enough people were able to communicate the belief that they would be in favor of amending the constitution if necessary in order to make sure that judges and police officers could be prosecuted even when they did not know the acts they did were illegal, what do you suppose would happe? suppose 90 percent of the population was in favor of this? How much would convincing large numbers of people work?
But who is going to do anything about it? As a freedom loving people we are constantly confronted with the criminal government doing wrong yet we feel helpless to do any real change. I get furious over nearly everthing my criminal congress does, yet outside of call their office, write them and fax them I am instigating no real change. They continue. This problem of DC roadblocks can only be handled by the citizens of DC. I wish I had a solution for them. If it was taking place in your neighborhood what would you do?
Honestly, what would you do?
I would do what one of the citizens of that neighborhood (the one who had been there like 40 yrs or whatever) is doing and sue the police dept (not for money) but to get a preliminary injunction to stop the suspicionless stops/searches which could be construed as a 4th amendment violation and also to invoke their constitutional right to freedom of travel. Yes, you do have the right to freely go from one place to another (with limited exceptions such as airports and international border crossings) without being unduly harassed by the authorities.
In addition, given the demographic makeup of the neighborhood in question, I would throw in some equal protection arguments, etc... (as much as i hate to use collectivist reasoning of any sort, if it would stop a more insidious practice of indiscriminate harassment of every single person coming into a given neighborhood, i would use it).
I am curious as to what form the lawsuit mentioned in this article took or if it has been filed yet? Anybody know? A quick google search didnt turn anything up other than general reference to a lawsuit being filed by some local news outlet.
Litigation is probably the best route. Of course until a judge decides to see the case you are stuck with the thug gestapo at you neighborhood asjing for your papers. I think perhaps to sue the officers indivdually may have some success as well.
totally unconstitutional
for DUI roadblocks - upheld by the U.S. Sup Ct in a case called Michigan v. Sitz - - I have read of temporary roadblocks on a specific stretch of road when someone had been kidnapped - - I have never heard of "checkpoints" at various entry roads of a given neighborhood for weeks on end because there is crime there. This is a dangerous precedent if this practice is upheld. If upheld on the justification that public safety requires it to prevent murders - - 3 yrs from now it will be because of a spike in "drug crimes" and then just "property crimes" and then...its just there.
Of course, a "stop" at a roadblock or checkpoint is a seizure contemplated by the 4th amendment and normally would require reasonable suspicion that a crime is or is about to be committed. I'm sure the courts will eschew the previous cases on this and just ask whether "it was reasonable" for the police to do this. I understand the officers desire to lower the number of people that get killed. But nevertheless, once you open the door, it stays open and only gets larger and larger. See, for example, the evisceration of the 4th amendment in the name of the War on (some) Drugs.
And apparently not to be outdone, the governor of Illinois publicly declared that he was looking into using the National Guard to help the Chicago police with some of our trouble neighborhoods. As soon as it was announced, one of his "staffers" immediately began issuing retractions saying it was just an idea, not a plan. Of course, this would be patently unconstitutional for a host of reasons. I fear for our nation if these things become more and more common.
Maybe if they banned handguns it would be safer. OOPS wait a minute they banned handguns many years ago. Looks like that didn't work.