Friday, January 1, 2010

Eroding our Fourth Amendment


Because the government didn’t do its job and allowed a terrorist on a plane, it wants to erode our Fourth Amendment rights protecting us against unreasonable searches. Essentially it wishes to strip search us in the name of our own protection.

I do apologize for the images that appear here. This, without sugar coating, is what you can look like. More than likely, your child will not be allowed in the tube with you. He or she will be left with the six dollar an hour attendant who escorted you into the machine.

If you do not wish to be scanned, you can have a full body pat down. Considering where Abdulmuttalab hid the explosives, you can imagine what a full body pat down would be like.

"A choice between being groped and being stripped, I don't think we should pretend those are the only choices,” said Chris Calabrese, a lawyer with the civil liberties union. "People shouldn't be humiliated by their government" in the name of security, nor should they trust that the images will always be kept private.”

Yes, airplanes are currently the choice of terrorists. However, they’ve discharged sarin gas in a Tokyo subway, anthrax through the mail, car bombs outside of government buildings and explosions on the British tube. There is nothing to stop them from targeting malls, Times Square, buses or schools.

The government is eroding all our liberties. We’ve seen it in matters of faith, in firearms, in travel. It’s time to say enough.







3 comments:

  1. -they look like the wooden art-student forms, one-foot tall and used to teach drawing. Even if they 'scanned' one person every 15 seconds, they'd only do a percentage of the passengers b/c there are not enough machines, room or trained personnel to do more. As you note, other options are to take a train, bus, car or steam ship. Freedom of expression ends at the place where one's fist contacts another's jaw. My pursuit of happiness doesn't permit me to blow up anyone, Fourth Ammendment notwithstanding. Sad choices. Sad world.

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  2. Yikes...Of course Al w/his nose ring ,ear rings,tattoos gets checked pretty regularly as it is..whos got the petition for me to sign :P

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