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From: thk@uxrd15.UUCP (Tom Kiermaier)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,talk.politics.guns,alt.conspiracy,alt.activism,misc.headlines,misc.legal
Subject: Re: The Bill of Rights: A luxury of simpler times?
Message-ID: <1062@devildog.UUCP>
Date: 18 Jan 90 13:54:18 GMT
References: <11450@venera.isi.edu>
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Reply-To: thk@uxrd15.UUCP (Tom Kiermaier)
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In article <11450@venera.isi.edu> ipser@vaxa.isi.edu.UUCP (Ed Ipser) writes:
>Last September, a Washington Post-ABC News Poll discovered:
>
>   62 percent of those questioned said they would be willing to give up
>   "a few of the freedoms we have in this country" to significantly
>   reduce illegal drug use.
>
>   55 percent said they favored mandatory drug tests for all Americans,
>   and an even larger majority--67 percent--said all high school students
>   should be regularly tested for drugs.
>
>   82 percent favored using the military to control illegal drugs within
>   the United States.
>
>   52 percent said they would agree to let police search homes of suspected
>   drug dealers without a court order, even if the houses "of people like
>   you were sometimes searched by mistake."
>
>   67 percent favored allowing the police to stop cars at random to search
>   for drugs, "even if it means that cars of people like you are sometimes
>   stopped and searched."
>
>   83 percent favored encouraging people to report drug users to police 
>   "even if it means telling police about a family member who uses drugs."

Incredible!  I guess in the comfort of your secure living room
it's easy to think about stripping away the rights of others.
I wonder how many of the people who favor abandoning the Bill
of Rights would feel the same way after being rudely awakened
at 2:00AM by a police narcotics raid.  My guess is that they
would be damn angry.  I know I would be.

While returning home from a vacation in the Adirondak region
of NY, We came upon a road block on I87.  All of the vehicles
were being funneled into a rest area and stopped.  US Government
agents looked inside the stopped vehicles, asked a few questions,
then waved most people on.  When we were stopped, they were
ripping apart a Winnebago.  Watching this was an older couple
who probably owned that motorhome.  I think the agents were
from the US Border Patrol.  Since they were tearing apart the
Winnebago, I assumed they were looking for drugs rather than
illegal aliens.  That incident further decreased my already
low level of respect for the US Government.  Stopping innocent
people for unknown reasons is what they do in police states,
no the United States. Right?

Another "police state" incident I witnessed occurred in a condo
I lived in 5 years ago.  I was awakened at about 1:30AM by a
very loud pounding noise.  My wife and I just about jumped
out of bed. I got up and looked out the bedroom window.  I
saw 2 men, one with what looked like a shotgun, pounding on
my neighbors door.  After pounding on the door for what
must have been about thirty seconds, they started screaming
that they would break down the door if wasn't opened.  At
that point I grabbed my gun just in case they decided to
break down my door.  As my wife started dialing the police,
the guys pounding on the door started yelling that they
were the police.  The cops didn't identify themselves
for nearly 50-60 seconds, all the while pounding on the
door and threatening to knock it down.  Once they identified
themselves, my neighbor opened the door.  The cops left
within 2 minutes or so.  We never did find out what they
were after.  My wife and I were pretty shaken up by the
experience.

				Tom Kiermaier