Comments
by Scoper...
Unreasonable Search and Seizure?
(You Decide)
I
wasn't going to write again about the Fourth Amendment so soon. Then again,
I didn't expect it to be randomly violated again so soon, in the state
of North Carolina that's been my home for almost a decade. It actually
got me involved in a Constitutional debate of sorts - on the radio - which,
I
will admit, is not proper for me to engage in as I am the nominal newscaster
for that station. But when challenged by the DJ, I couldn't just "leave
it lay."
Recently, the Gaston County,
NC School Board voted (unanimously) to allow random vehicle searches in
the school lots where students park. These "random" searches began on Friday,
September 8. Supposedly, they're looking for guns, since two were found
in student vehicles a week or two earlier. Those students, by the way,
were appropriately disciplined. (One was taken to jail, and is now out
on bond awaiting a criminal trial.) It's doubtful anyone has a problem
with that. Personally, I don't think teenagers should be packing heat on
school grounds, either.
What got my goat was that
the esteemed personality could do nothing but parrot the platitudes of
the school board members quoted in the morning newspaper article. Really
intelligent statements such as: "parking is a privilege, not a right."
Excuse me, I thought DRIVING was a privilege, not a right. Am I to understand
that there are no rights at all, even when the car isn't moving?
Then came the specious argument
that "we're subject to metal detectors in airports and other public buildings."
Enemies of your freedom and mine are really big on these sorts of arguments,
which seem at first glance like "apples and apples" comparisons. They are
not. Here's why:
Metal detectors check EVERYONE
walking through the passage, the door or the vestibule. If you do not understand
the difference between this and RANDOM searches of vehicles, stop reading
now. I'm just wasting your time. On September 8, such random searches were
initiated of cars parked in Gaston County School parking lots. As reported
by a local television station, (Superintendent) Ed Sadler said that nothing
illegal was found. But (Sadler) "declined to say how school officials determined
which vehicles were searched."
So what was the determining
factor for whose cars were searched and whose weren't? He can't tell
you, because he doesn't know himself. Probable cause? They've sidestepped
that entirely. Without that tiny restriction, "cause" can be as arbitrary
as "we don't like your looks." This little phrase is just a little too
inconvenient:
…And no warrants shall
issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly
describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
In other words, you wanna
search my private vehicle, get a warrant! First you explain it
to a judge, then if he signs off on the paperwork, then you
tear my car apart. That's not "beating the system," that is the
system. If you or I are stopped on a public street, you can give the cops
permission to search (though if they want to plant a bag of pot on you,
you're quite screwed.) But if you demand a warrant, they have to go get
one. That's true anywhere in the United States. Why is this fundamental
right suddenly forfeited on school grounds (also public property) and why
is a local school board able to invalidate this 4th Amendment
right on a simple majority vote?
What are we left with? "Don't
like your looks, search your car," as has already been discussed. What's
next? "Don't like your hair, search your car. Don't like the way you saunter
down the hallway, search your car. Don't like who we saw you talking to
at lunch yesterday, search both your cars. You skipped out on the last
pep-rally, search your car."
I'm not trying to be funny
here. I've had a human mind for most of 42 years, and this is the way the
human mind works. Yours, mine, and everybodys. That's why we need definite
restrictions on how we can treat other people, even if, and especially
if, they don't meet our own personal standards for behavior.
When the standards are thrown
out the window, emotion rules the day. When I tacitly accused the DJ of
leaning toward fascism (without using the word) he tried to make a joke
of it by saying, "maybe we should search your car." I don't even
own a gun, and I'd like to think he was being facetious, but when you take
away the time-honored restrictions on these activities, isn't it amazing
how quickly these thoughts ensue? Even in a joking sense, he was upset
with me, and it took him less than ten seconds for him to decide that I
was an enemy of "right-thinking society."
One of the saddest moments
of this ersatz radio "debate" on the issue was a caller who truly believed
that car-searches could have avoided the Columbine massacre. Sadly, milady,
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold waited until they showed up at school to
start shooting. A metal detector in the doorway might have slowed them
down, but no parking lot search would have.
Something else would have,
and the very mention of this is so politically incorrect it is bound to
enrage some of you who read this. "Zero Tolerance" gave those boys free
reign and no opposition until the cops showed up. What's more, they knew
it. What if a teacher or two had had access to a simple pistol at Columbine?
How many more murdered teenagers might have celebrated birthdays in 2000?
As always, just a thought.
Scoper
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