Thursday, November 18, 2010

Unlawful Search and Yet No Seizure!




I haven't been posting over the past several months but that does not mean that I have been absent over the governmental intrusions into our lives. Much has been written and said over the past several weeks with regards to the TSA's full body scans and "pat downs."

The fourth amendment to our Constitution grants us protection from unlawful search and seizure. This right has been upheld on several court challenges to prevent the policing forces of this country from unlawfully obtaining incriminating information and evidence against its citizens without due process.

Warrantless searches are legal if the police witness a suspect commit a misdemeanor or has reasonable cause to believe that the suspect has committed a specific felony. So how does that entitle the TSA to search a law abiding citizen without reasonable suspicion? Unless they are saying that every American is suspect and may have committed a felony prior to arriving at the airport!

And because an idiot terrorist boarded a plane on Christmas Day, 2009 and tried to detonate an underwear bomb we are all suspects? Enter Janet "neapolitan ice cream" Napolitano and the goose stepping security forces of the Transportation Security Administration. Seeking to detain Grandma Faye at the gate should she not want to be scanned with radioactive particles and frisk her as if she had just shot a Kennedy.

The TSA should be ashamed and the "ice cream lady" should be even more embarrassed. If she only could enforce the same policies at the borders of the state that she once governed along with the other states which border Mexico to prevent the entry of those who seek to do us harm; both economically as well as physically. Yet our imperial federal government seeks to sue Arizona for enforcing the same law that the Feds have already sworn to uphold.

I have not read or seen publicized that any of the full body scan or pat down methods have produced one single terrorist plot break up. Mainly because we are so arrogant as to think that the terrorist will try to board an airplane in this country using the same methods that have already been tried. These people are ever evolving and probing. The underwear bomber, the toner bombers and the shoe bomber were probing for our strengths, not our weaknesses. The underwear bomber almost succeeded but took a beat down from an alert passenger.

There are too many problems with the Department of Homeland Security as it relates to the personal freedoms of Americans. Often over reaching and over reacting we end up with full body scans or invasions of our personal space with a full body pat down. Tapping the phone conversations of a suspected terrorist and patting down my mother is two separate and distinct differences.

I propose that we let the TSA set up at our border states and pat down every person seeking to enter this country. And since this agency has so much zeal in protecting the citizens we station them at illegal entry points to arrest and detain the same illegals that want to come here. I am sure that they will find all kinds of illegal contraband on these illegal invaders than what has been found on any passenger that is looking to board a flight from New York to Los Angeles. Then and only then will they prove to me that it is worth the money we spend on airport security when we all know that the next attack will probably not be an airplane.

Why are we not profiling those who have shown a propensity to harm Americans instead of delaying my mother or older sister at the gate; both of whom have nothing more than a speeding ticket as their only criminal offense? Because someone might get offended? Yet we let the masses suffer for the few? All the while slowing air travel and jeopardizing part of the American economy. Pretty soon those who regularly fly will opt to drive then where will we be? Bailing out the airlines I think!

Mr. President, eliminate these intrusions at the airport. We already had to remove our belts, shoes and open our laptop bags and turn on cameras and phones. I can't bring more than a mouthful of Listerine in a clear bottle, a days worth of shampoo or body lotion onto the plane. What else do we law abiding citizens of this country have to do in order to get on an airplane? Walk naked through the gates? I implore you to pull in the reins on this intrusion. And do it now!

These are my words! Please post yours!