Creeping Totalitarianism

Do you realize that despite Fourth Amendment's right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures, government agents can still stop U.S. citizens and search through all our possessions without a warrant, cause, or even suspicion, but just because they want to? It's true. All you have to do is cross the border. I've never really understood this. I'm under the … [Read more...] about Laptop Search and Seizure Made Easy

In a comment to my post about the Lima shooting, someone named David writes: Let's see. You're in a situation where you are a potential target. Two pit bulls charge you. You put your weapon down, reach in your pocket, pull out the pepper spray and hope it stops the dogs. If that doesn't work, you pull out your handy taser, ask the dogs to sit while you tase them. Then you go … [Read more...] about Just Stop Terrorizing People

I was a juror in a case where a man was accused of attacking a cop who had pulled him over for a traffic violation. We convicted him because his story wasn't believable for a number of reasons, one of which was his claim that the cop attacked him out of the blue without provocation. That just seemed unlikely. I wonder how we would have felt if we'd seen this video before the … [Read more...] about Without Provocation

I'm something of a libertarian, and libertarianism is about fighting big government. Usually when push comes to shove, it's law enforcement officers who are the point of the government's spear. So it would be easy to hate cops. I try not to, though. Most of the cops I know seem like pretty decent folks doing a job that I couldn't do. They don't invent the rules, they just have … [Read more...] about Why People Hate Cops

Last week I wrote about the plans of D.C. police to impose checkpoints on residents. That fell through. However, the innovative folks who run things in Rolling Meadows here in Illinois have been getting away with it for a whole week: The owners of a Rolling Meadows apartment complex filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday charging that their civil rights were violated when … [Read more...] about The Rolling Meadows Police State