Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 07:35:48 -0700 From: frdmftr@MINDSPRING.COM (Don Cline) Subject: Re: Jan. 27 column -- roadblocks To: AZRKBA@asu.edu
----- Original Message ----- From: Ernest Hancock <ernesthancock@INFICAD.COM> To: <AZRKBA@asu.edu> Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 4:04 PM Subject: Fw: Jan. 27 column -- roadblocks
> Too bad Don Cline is gone, this Vin article would have prompted a novel from
> him. I thought I knew that name too. If anyone has access to ask him a
> question, ask if he use to be employed by the tate Department of Commerce.
I'm not gone yet; I've been trying to unsubscribe (only temporarily) but I haven't had any luck. I receive Vin's articles directly, and I have only the most minuscule quibble with Vin's article: As used in sobriety checkpoints scenario and the drug checkpoint scenario, the drivers' license is, indeed, being perverted into an internal passport. I oppose both of these illegal and unconstitutional actions by government. That doesn't change the fact that proof of competency and financial responsibility is and should be required before operating any lethal machinery at public risk. To the argument "It doesn't help!" because of the way twenty percent of the drivers drive now, I reply, "You want everyone to do it?"
Vin also asks, "Did you forget how to drive when you moved across town? If not, why do you need to update your address?" I reply, "For the purposes of financial privacy." Besides which, I don't: I've had the same mailing address for the last ten years, and I've lived in about a dozen locations.
Lastly, no, I've never worked for the Department of Commerce, and I never will.
-- Don Cline frdmftr@mindspring.com http://www.mindspring.com/~frdmftr ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The Right to Keep and Bear Arms brought about
* The Parliamentary Revolution * The Magna Carta * The American Revolution * The world's first and only nation of liberty.
Without it you are nothing but a feudal serf.
EXERCISE your Right to Keep and Bear Arms or KNEEL BEFORE YOUR MASTER. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ To all Socialist, Communist, and Marxist Anti-Gunners:
... I'll be your huckleberry. > > FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
> > FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED JAN. 27, 2000
> > THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
> > 'Hi, random drug search'
> >
> >
> > Holyoke, Massachusetts is the kind of blue-collar town where folks
> >repair to the main street taverns early on St. Patrick's Day to get the
> >best seats for watching the parade. Green beer flows profusely, and the
> >crowd shouts itself hoarse with merriment. Then comes lunch.
> >
> > On Nov. 21, 1997, police set up a roadblock in Holyoke with the
> >intention of searching cars to determine whether local drivers were in
> >possession of illegal drugs.
> >
> > One of the drivers they stopped was Hector Rodriguez; he was charged with
> >possessing marijuana and operating with a suspended license.
> >
> > Mr. Rodriguez's lawyers argued the case shouldbe thrown out of court.
> >The evidence should not be admitted, they argued, because the search was
> >unconstitutional -- police had neither a warrant nor any probable cause to
> >suspect Mr. Rodriguez of a crime; they were just stopping anyone who
> >happened by.
> >
> > Prosecutors responded that drug roadblocks must be constitutional because
> >they are similar to checkpoints set up to identify drunk drivers.
> >
> > Tuesday, the Supreme Judicial Court -- highest court in the commonwealth
> >of Massachusetts -- found unanimously for Mr. Rodriguez. Case dismissed.
> >
> > There are crucial distinctions between the two types of roadblocks, the
> >court ruled. Sobriety checkpoints are intended to remove a deadly and
> >immediate menace from the road and are a ''minimal and focused intrusion''
> >on motorists; but drug roadblocks violate the Massachusetts state
> >constitution because they are generalized searches to discover evidence of
> >criminal activity, without probable cause or reasonable suspicion.
> >
> > The court's ruling is correct as far as it goes, but it shows on how
> >narrow a base the Fourth Amendment -- the one that supposedly guarantees
> >"the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and
> >effects, against unreasonable searches a seizures" -- still stands.
> >
> > Allowing random traffic stops to check for drunk drivers -- or merely to
> >demand the internal passports which Americans still euphemistically call
> >"drivers licenses" -- was dangerous in the first place. (Yes, they're
> >internal passports, of the Gestapo agent's "Papers, please" variety. Did
> >you forget how to drive last time you moved across town? Of course not.
> >Then why did the address on the license have to be updated? You don't have
> >to keep paying money and filing change-of-address forms to keep your high
> >school (start ital)diploma(end ital) valid, do you?)
> >
> > Like the camel's nose under the tent, authorizing those infringements
> >only invited the beast to see if it could go a bit further. Of course
> >police were next going to try random traffic stops to search for drugs or
> >guns.
> >
> > The argument is always that "public safety" -- not to mention officer
> >convenience -- will be enhanced if only we will tolerate a few more minor
> >intrusions. After all, if you're innocent, what do you have to hide? Those
> >who cause a fuss only cause the line to move slower. And, of course, if you
> >raise a protest, then we (start ital)know(end ital) you must have something
> >to hide. Let's just run a little background check, here. IRS audited your
> >tax returns recently?
> >
> > But that way, of course, lies the police state. As Mr. Franklin was wont
> >to remind us, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
> >temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
> >
> > To which federalist Daniel Webster wisely added: "Good intentions will
> >always be pleaded for any assumption of power. The Constitution was made to
> >guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in
> >all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to
> >be good masters ... but they mean to be masters."
> >
> > Papers, please.
> >
> >
> >Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas
> >Review-Journal. His new book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the
> >Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available at $24.95 postpaid from Mountain
> >Media, P.O. Box 271122, Las Vegas, Nev. 89127; by dialing 1-800-244-2224;
> >or via web site http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html. Credit cards
> >accepted; volume discounts available.
> >
> >***
> >
> >
> >Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
> >
> >"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John
> >Hay, 1872
> >
> >"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and
> >thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series
> >of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
> >
> >* * *
> >
> >
>
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