Assault on the Fourth Amendment

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; 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. - The Bill of Rights

Seizures of property due to a plethora of laws and regulations are commonplace today. Now if the government wants it, charges can be trumped and the property taken, often without trial.

Beware of what you eat
On December 1, 2008 the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) and the Lorain County Health Department violated the constitutional rights of John and Jacqueline Stowers of LaGrange, Ohio. The Stowers operate an organic food cooperative called Manna Storehouse. ODA and Lorain County Health Department agents forcefully raided their home and unlawfully seized the family's personal food supply, cell phones and personal computers. The Stowers, parents of eight children (including one son serving in Iraq), have been accused of violating retail food establishment licensure laws.

"The use of these police state tactics on a peaceful family is simply unacceptable," Buckeye Institute President David Hansen said. "Officers rushed into the Stowers' home with guns drawn and held the family - including ten young children - captive for six hours."

The Buckeye Institute argues the right to buy food directly from local farmers; distribute locally-grown food to neighbors; and pool resources to purchase food in bulk are rights that do not require a license. In addition, the right of peaceful citizens to be free from paramilitary police raids, searches and seizures is guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Section 14, Article 1 of the Ohio Constitution.

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
- James Madison

The War on Terror
President Bush expanded the power of the executive branch in the ever-increasing surveillance of American citizens. Attorney General Michael Mukasey is set to begin implementing new FBI guidelines that could begin national security and criminal investigations of racial and ethnic groups without any evidence of wrongdoing. Lara Jakes Jordan of The Associated Press pointed out: "The new policy, law enforcement officials said, would let agents open preliminary terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence (including tips from informants) to build a profile of traits that, taken together, were deemed suspicious." There would be no evidence of criminal activity.

Mukasey also has "proposed a new domestic-spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years" (The Washington Post, Aug. 16). State and local police agencies would not be hampered by Fourth Amendment's requirements that they must search and seize traces of our activities and beliefs only upon "probable cause" that we are, or have been or plan to be, involved in criminal actions. They would need only a suspicion that we somehow are involved in terrorism or are providing "material support" to terrorism. "Material support" can mean sending a check to a charitable organization that, unknown to the giver, provides funds to a group later listed by the government as a terrorist group.

"Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death."
- Adolf Hitler

The War on Drugs
Democratic politicians like the War on Drugs just as it is -- because they love the power it gives the federal government. Republican politicians want to accelerate the War on Drugs -- by taking away more of your Constitutional liberties, by taking away more of your privacy, by turning America into more of a police state.

In yet another violation of the Fourth Amendment, The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act was passed by Congress giving sweeping new powers over tobacco to the FDA, and will require everyone engaged in manufacturing, preparing, compounding, or processing tobacco to register with the FDA and be subjected to FDA inspections. The FDA will now have the power of pre-market reviews of all new tobacco products, and will impose new user fees, meaning taxes, on manufacturers and importers of tobacco products. Curiously, this bill with more layers of bureaucracy and interference was supported by tobacco corporate giant, Phillip Morris. Other tobacco companies have taken to calling the bill the “Marlboro Monopoly Act of 2009.” One has to wonder how many smaller farmers will be forced out of business because of this bill.

Bill Clinton's War on Drugs shredded much of what remained of the Bill of Rights. The biggest losers in the war were mothers, fathers, small-time dealers, medical-marijuana users and even children -- not the "drug kingpins".

Financially, police agencies involved in the forfeiture of property were winners. Following the passage of the 1984 Omnibus Crime Bill, police agencies were allowed to sell the assets they seized and keep the money. Tens of thousands of people had their property seized for the most trivial drug-law infractions. On the highways, police use "drug courier profiles" to stop and search motorists and confiscate their vehicles if any drugs are found. At airports, travelers' cash is seized when it tests positive for traces of cocaine.

• In Denver, Colorado, 13 SWAT team members stormed the upstairs apartment of Ismael Mena looking for drugs. After breaking open the front door, the SWAT team found the door to Mena's room latched, and kicked it in. Police say they found him armed with a .22 revolver, standing on his bed. Officers claim they screamed "Police!" and "Drop the gun!" repeatedly. Mena started to put the gun down, asking, "Policia?" But police say when they then moved to disarm him, he again raised the gun. Officers opened fire. Mena, a father of nine, was hit by eight bullets and killed instantly. No drugs were found. The next day, SWAT team officers learned they had raided the wrong residence-they should have gone next door.
  
  
• In Pennsylvania, a 21-year-old man with no prior offenses, was shot to death in his house by a squad of masked police dressed in ninja-style uniforms. They didn't even knock before tossing a smoke grenade through a window, setting fire to the house. The unarmed John Hirko, suspected of dealing small amounts of marijuana and cocaine, was found face down on his stairway, shot in the back while fleeing the fire.

Imagine what will happen when "hate speech" laws are linked up with forfeiture statutes. People will be afraid to speak for fear of having their property seized.

Protect your constitutional rights during police encounters

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