I despair for the spirit of American liberty...

.. whenever I read about something like this:

The story reads like a sitcom. A bad one. The cops arrive, and the kid whose folks own the place is outside. She quickly locks the door and refuses the cops permission to enter. She insists there's nobody there, despite the cars parked around the house and the cops being able to see and hear kids inside.

I have to give the cops credit -- they actually didn't just force their way in. They knocked and called into the house. They phoned the house. They even ran the plates of the cars in the yard, contacting the registered owners and tried to get their help. In the end, though, they did get a search warrant and broke into the house. Seven teenagers, including the girl whose parents own the home and who stood on the porch and refused the cops, ended up arrested.

Those cops showed a hell of a lot more patience than I would have.

What exactly is the crime here -- suspicion of having fun? Suspicion of an unauthorized party? What exactly was happening that prompted such a strong effort to obtain "permission" from people probably not authorized to give it, and that eventually lead to a search warrant? What judge would issue a search warrant for a private home based on such allegations? I mean, dear god, they might be having fun in there! It must be stopped!

And then a pundit writes the concluding sentence in the quote, and I find myself asking where American's tradition of freedom went... because it sure as hell isn't here anymore.

Posted on 2006-04-30 14:13:35.0 by matthew@triggerfinger.org

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