Posted on 05/17/2009 8:43:30 AM PDT by guildnavigator
I live in a small town in Southern Maine. Last week I encountered the local police in the process of setting up a roadblock/checkppoint on one of the more heavily-travelled county roads. It was mid-afternoon - not your usual midnight sobriety checkpoint. Apparently the reason for the checkpoint was to screen motorists/vehicles/drivers/passengers for any and all possible violations. My son later drove past the checkpoint from the other direction and saw one of his friends standing outside his vehicle while police searched it. Unknown whether that was a "probable cause" or "consent" search. Several days before that I went to park at Logan Airport's terminal B short term parking while going in to pick up my daughter. In order to pass through the gate to the parking garage I had to consent to have my vehicle searched. A surly attendant demanded that I pop my trunk. He fiddled with the trunk door a bit then wave me through. Increasingly intrusive airport security checks for passengers. Bus stations now require ID to purchase tickets. Cameras log your motorvehicle plate at various locations including intersections and toll booths. If you have a TransPass or similar toll-paying device, you are duly logged and date-stamped for each position. Your cell phones transmit gps coordinates of their current location for "enhanced 911" systems. The list goes on. Where does it end? Why not a camera in every bedroom? I suspect some illegal activity may be going on in there as well. There seems to be little protest. The sheep line up. The cattle shuffle into the shoot. I'd like to hear of other peoples experience with the ongoing violations of the 4th Amendment.
Didn’t you post this same thing earlier this morning?
Multiple postings of the same vanity will not lead to your becoming universally beloved.
If you are not doing anything wrong why worry? The biggest complainers are the ones doing something wrong. The biggest worry I have is if I have a beer on the way home.
Maybe you’re being facetious here and I’m missing it somehow? If not, I have to say that kind of thinking is scary to a free man.
“If you are not doing anything wrong why worry?”
i can’t believe you actually wrote this...dude , ya need remedial freedom classes.
JUST SAY NO, when they ask you to get out of the car LOCK THE DOORS and PUT KEYS IN POCKET, JUST SAY NO. Tell them to go get a warrant, Then peacefully remind them that Violating a persons Civil Rights under the color of law is a FELONY. Unlawful detainment is a VIOLATION. So is Kidnapping should they arrest you. By the way the very instant you notify them of possible criminal violations on their part their IMMUNITY from Civil Liability is GONE.
Sorry. New to sight. Still trying to figure out how things work!
You said it yourself: ONGOING violations.
The aim is to make these anti-Constitutional acts part of everyday life so that those protesting and/or refusing to comply will be portrayed as criminals.
Works for police but not for the Border Patrol.
I’ll take a few and see if I can locate the relevant legal citation, Supreme Court ruling.
As for the road block, have you called the local PD and found out why they had the checkpoint? Escaped inmate in the area? Amber alert? Drug checkpoint? What did they say?
As for the airport, that's private property, or government owned property,so if they have that rule so be it. Rather that than a bomb in a terminal like the Scots faced with their doctor's plot.
Everyone knows their rights, just ask them. What are your responsibilities? That is the question no one wants to answer.
Found it (Federal Law and upheld by the Supreme Court).
The legal ability of the Border Patrol to stop traffic, to question persons, and to search traffic is uncontested. The Supreme Court decision is the last word.
http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF1804/Davidson/Davidson.html
http://www.ptleader.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=21651&TM=80391.33
http://www.ccis-ucsd.org/news/Art.%2048.pdf
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-05-435
INA 287 (a) (3) within a reasonable distance from any external boundary of the United States, to board and search for aliens any vessel within the territorial waters of the United States and any railway car, aircraft, conveyance, or VEHICLE... and within a distance of twenty-five miles from any such external boundary to have access to private lands, but not dwellings for the purpose of patrolling the border to prevent the illegal entry of aliens into the United States;
They don’t seriously enforce laws against illegal immigration, so this is the only part they care about:
“(5) to make arrests-
(A) for any offense against the United States, if the offense is committed in the officer’s or employee’s presence, or
(B) for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States, if the officer or employee has reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such a felony, if the officer or employee is performing duties relating to the enforcement of the immigration laws at the time of the arrest and if there is a likelihood of the person escaping before a warrant can be obtained for his arrest.”
Just a “legal” way to stop and search anyone without probable cause.
I agree with you.
The police State thing has gone too far. Homeland Security is now putting out terrorist hit lists on anyone who advocates or supports anything the government does not like.
Time for some constitutional blow back.
Or the ones who remember we had a constitution... Count me as a big complainer and I don’t drink and drive. I am American and drive.
Actually, the Border Patrol Agents do care and are working harder than you realize to stop, catch, deport/jail illegals/drug smugglers and while doing so they face a very dangerous environment, from the terrain to the MEXICAN ARMY, the Agents are undeterred in their efforts.
It is better to direct your comment to the DHS “leadership” and The One, not the Agent in the field when it comes to immigration policy.
“These checkpoints are illegal and the ones performing them need to be arrested and incarcerated because they are breaking the law. They are also traitors.”
No way, they have them all the time in N. County San Diego to catch unlicenced and uninsured drivers and they catch a lot.
They should have them every day in multiple locations and also check for citizenship by having border patrol at every checkpoint!!
Use the "Post Reply" Button to reply in the forum. The "Private Reply" button sends messages to private mail.
York Maine. My Sympathies. Anyway, most daytime checkpoints are looking for expired plates or inspections tags. However Maine has joined the effort to curb international smuggling of Drugs, Hazardous waste and Illegal Aliens. One such operation operates out of York Maine.
The words of a slave, or someone about to become one.
I was being kind, I really think there should be open season on illegsals and a bounty for dead ones!
Great answer!....Ive signed u up to have your house searched 3 days a week...cavity searches and bedroom searches of your entire family as well and any and all associates u may have...
and Don't sweat it... we know u don't do anything wrong...just a routine procedure...
and Thanks for your cooperation...Your making a safer and greater Amerika!
Thanks again for your support...
signed: USGCHGP* *(US Government Counsel of Honest and Good People)
There’s nothing illegal about roadblocks, even the ACLU can’t stop them.
We need more not less!
Every one they have here that usually last 4 or 5 hours they catch 40-50 no license drivers and impound their cars and take them off the road.
even then they are inneffective since they only stop about 1 out of every 5 cars that pass it since they only have so many stations for checking drivers and when those are full every one just passes theough.
There’s a story where a small society looks forward to a long trip from whence none return; one day a huge event occurs as one of the travelers returns with startling news — this is not a pleasant place to visit at all; the reader learns that the society is made up of beef cows and the destination of this scheduled trip is the slaughter house.
I can’t relocate it and my poor memory won’t capture the author’s name or story title amongst all the clutter clogging up my saturated brain cells.
Does anyone else remember this scenario?
King George III couldn't have said it better.
Yes, I think I do...How I remember it, one of the sentient cattle escaped from the slaughterhouse semi flayed, after being stunned rather than killed. He became a sort of prophet to the cattle as he traveled about warning them not to go. The story was in third person/past tense IIRC, and I believe it was published in a paperback anthology called “Eco-Fiction” , ed. John Stadler. I may be wrong about what book it’s in though as the table of contents did not ring any bells.
Actually, maybe I DO recognize the title...I said the escaped bovine became a prophet to the other cattle, and there’s a story listed on the table of contents called “A Mother’s Tale”. The mother cow is telling her calf of the time the prophet came and warned the others what would happen if they went-the cow described the bull prophet as looking like he was wearing a cape, because the skin around his shoulders had been flayed. I know I read this book to death when I was in Jr High, and I distinctly remembered “The Supremacy of Uruguay” from it. I am describing the 1971 edition-it was republished, and the line up may have changed for other editions.
“I live in a state where they are illegal.”
What state are you referring to?
This is a direct result of political correctness. We are all targeted because police cannot “make hay where the sun is shinning”. PC is taking away our rights. It is the left’s main mechanism. Free speech has been limited by it. Freedom of religion has also. Our safety is also compromised thanks to PC.
I know that. My comment was directed at the pols making the decisions.I have no problem with the “cops on the beat”.
Understood.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.