General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Charts: Are the NYPD's Stop-and-Frisks Violating the Constitution? [View all]Savannahmann
(3,891 posts)More than once, we who consider it a duty to defend those rights have been told to shut up and sit down and be quiet. We have been told that we didn't live there and we didn't understand when we objected to the heavy handed lockdown of the Watertown neighborhood by the Police. We have been told that we didn't understand the feelings of the people when we objected to the presence of machine gun toting police on the streets hunting Richard Dorner. We object to these kinds of stop and frisk abuses, and we're told we should shut up, or they demand to know what we have to hide.
The 4th Amendment says all of us have the right to be secure from unwarranted search and seizures. We know the police are abusing the exceptions granted them by the court, and we do nothing about it. We know that NCIC is abused daily, and we do nothing. We know that police abuse their authority by bullying people into compliance, and we do nothing. We object, and are shouted down by the staunch defenders to are quick to remind us that the Police are trying to protect us.
We object to these things, but we are in the minority, and apparently Civil Rights are decided on a case by case basis, but only by those who are close enough, and claim to be the only ones who understand what is going on. The police are out of control. They have no one restraining them. It is if society turned a vicious dog loose on the community, trusting that the dog will only attack bad people. We operate under the assumption that if the dog bit you, you must have done something to deserve it. We have thrown out the principle that we are innocent until proven guilty, we now shout what do you have to hide?
We deride J. Edgar Hoover for among other things, keeping files on prominent people to blackmail them into behaving as the Director wanted. Threats of personal information getting out and ruining the reputation of powerful politicians was a great tool, to keep him in power. Now, it was wrong for him to do that, but at the same time we denounce him for it, we sit blithely by and let the Government create databases left and right, with the same kind of information, and able to be abused in just the same way, for our protection.
What do we have to hide? Each of us has something that they would rather not have out in public. Mistake made in our youth, bad choices as a young adult. Support for a cause that changed dramatically from what we believed it would be. Stop and Frisk is the tool of the police state, where are your papers? Where are you going? What business do you have around here? Refuse to answer, and you must have something to hide, probably something illegal, and that gives them probable cause to step up the investigation.
40% of us are willing to sacrifice Civil Liberties to fight Terrorism. After all, what do we have to hide?