LEFT BRAIN / RIGHT BRAIN

With crime rates still the highest in the civilized world, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that police may search a person, if that person is seen running from the police. The Supreme Court ruled that fleeing from the police is a "furtive and suspicious act" and fulfills the prerequisites of probable cause to initiate a search of the individual. This, of course, is seen as a way to head off a possible crime, or to catch an individual who may have already committed a crime, or to take into custody an individual holding or transporting contraband, illegal weapons, or drugs.

Granted, the A.C.L.U. is claiming that this is another way that our privacy and protections from illegal search and seizure are being eroded by a conservative government. They claim that the protections of private individuals are being torn down in order to root out crime.

This is not the case. This only involves people seen fleeing the police. Therefore, in order to protect the citizenry as well as the officers themselves, the fleeing individual may be taken into custody and searched. And even though there may have been no crime committed, the simple fleeing makes the individual suspect of criminal activity.

This is a case where the privacy of the individual must be tempered with the authority of the law to keep society law abiding and stable. With crime a major factor in the well being of it's citizenry, the U.S. Department of Justice must go after all crime, to keep us all safe. With drug use increasing at all levels of society and violent crime still rampant in our country, something must be done. The Supreme Court has done something, giving a new weapon to law enforcement officers to be used to keep the peace.

Big Brother is watching you. If you run, Big Brother can rifle through your pockets.

How far will it go? How far will our privacy be pared down in the name of Law Enforcement? How long until we all have cameras put into our own homes so that the police can perform random searches of our houses to make sure none of us are doing anything illegal or immoral? Is George Orwell's world of 1984 here, just a few years late? In Enemy of the State, Will Smith was being watched by the N.S.A. by satellite and pinhole cameras. How many satellites can look into your home when you're smoking that joint or having a fling with a hooker or looking at porn? Paranoid yet?

That's where we're all going, you know. Well, fuck 'em all! If they put a camera in my house, I'm gonna go out and hire a 65 year old, wrinkly, liver-spotted, hideous stripper to give those stakeout boys a vision that'll make their balls shrivel up to the size of raisins! If the cops wanna stop me and search me in the street, I'll put one of those mousetraps in a small container in my pocket. Some fat bull's hand reaches into that pocket, pulls out something interesting, and SNAP!...broken fingers, sucka! Even if I get hauled in, I'll probably still beat the rap on a technicallity.

It's the same with cell phones and e-mail and all this. The Government wants to be able to look at it all in the name of National Security. They want the keys to your encryption software just to "make sure you're being a good citizen".

Bullshit!

I have the right to be left alone. If a cop wants to stop me, he damn well better have a crime. Ain't no D.A. gonna go on a fishing expedition in my house bubba! But it's almost inevitable. Instead of Innocent Until Proven Guilty, it'll be Find the Suspect, then Find the Crime.