 |
Townhall...
The Law and Civil
Liberties
By Cal Thomas
6/16/2011
I bet you didn’t know that federal law enforcement officers
representing the Department of Education (DOE) can break down your
front door if you are suspected of violating the law.
I was not aware of this until I heard what happened to Kenneth Wright
of Stockton, Calif. On June 7, at 6 a.m., Wright was awakened by a
knock on his door. According to his account, he came downstairs in his
boxer shorts, but before he could reach the door, federal police
officers stormed in. They were looking for his estranged wife, who was
not in the house. Wright has no criminal record.
Wright told local TV station “News 10” he was grabbed by the neck and
taken outside to his front lawn. He says officers then awakened his
children, ages 3, 7 and 11, and put them in a Stockton patrol car while
his house was searched. “They put me in handcuffs in that hot patrol
car for six hours, traumatizing my kids,” he said.
DOE spokesman Justin Hamilton told the TV station that federal agents
with the Office of Inspector General (OIG) served the search warrant.
Hamilton would not say why the raid took place, but he said it was not
because someone had defaulted on student loans, as some local media
initially reported.
A statement from the OIG said: “The reasons for our search warrant are
currently under seal by the court and cannot be discussed publicly.”
The statement added: “OIG ... is responsible for the detection and
prevention of waste, fraud, abuse and criminal activity involving
Department of Education funds, programs and operations.” If they were
consistent, they’d be breaking down the doors of many failing public
schools that are wasting taxpayer funds and allow especially poor and
minority children out so they can choose better schools and have a
brighter future.
Constitutional attorney John Whitehead, president of The Rutherford
Institute in Charlottesville, Va. (Rutherford.org), says the Stockton
incident is one of a growing number of examples threatening the Fourth
Amendment, which guarantees “the right of the people to be secure in
their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures...”
Whitehead says the passage of the U.S. Patriot Act “opened the door to
other kinds of invasions” beyond the search for terrorist suspects.
Worse, the courts are increasingly approving this cozy association
between government and the police. “The problems inherent in these
situations,” he says, “are further compounded by the fact that SWAT
teams are granted ‘no-knock’ warrants at high rates, such that the
warrants themselves are rendered practically meaningless.”
Two recent cases demonstrate the threat. In an 8-1 Supreme Court ruling
last month (Kentucky v. King), Whitehead says the court “effectively
decimated the Fourth Amendment by giving police more leeway to break
into homes or apartments without a warrant when in search of illegal
drugs which they suspect might be destroyed if notice were given.”
In the other ruling, the Indiana Supreme Court (Barnes v. State) said
people do not have the right to resist police officers entering their
homes illegally. Resistance, notes Whitehead, can be as simple as
saying, “Wait, this is my home. What’s this about?”
If governments are permitted to slowly erode the Fourth Amendment and
the public won’t resist, then not only that amendment, but others
protecting speech, religion, the right to keep and bear arms and who
knows what else could be in jeopardy.
Incidents like the one in Stockton should cause conservatives and
liberals to be more vigilant about the encroaching power of government.
If a gang of cops, acting on behalf of the Department of Education, can
break down your door in possible violation of the Fourth Amendment,
then none of us is safe.
The New York Times reports the FBI’s approximately 14,000 agents are
being given “significant new powers” that will allow them more freedom
to search databases, examine your trash and use surveillance teams to
scrutinize the lives of people who attract their attention.
Worried now?
Read it at Townhall
|
