http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/04/2...rt-in-rosemead/So...here we go again.
Lets get everyone all scared of every little paper bag blowing down the street. At this rate you will have TSA style security coming to an event near you. Sometimes I wonder if these stories are drummed up and put in the news just to put people on edge.
People do not walk down the street scared of being struck by lighting but yet they have a better chance of getting struck by lighting then blown up by an empty bag in front of Walmart.
Do people not understand the effect terrorists wish to achieve when they commit these acts or do government agencies just capitalize on them for more control? Maybe both....
Already saw several talking heads on the news rattling off about how people need rethink their right to privacy so we can prevent these type of acts. Am I the only one that can see the writing on the wall?
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety and will surely lose both.
*edit
There have already been TSA agents at events like ball games and concerts. It will only get worse.
Saw it years ago. A large portion of people in the USA have been conditioned to accept any solution in the face of any "problem".
Doesnt matter if its economics, civil liberties, whatever. Cost/benefit analysis is not something most people are apparently capable of.
It doesnt help that people completely take for granted their rights, because they feel that social mores are what protects them and ignore fundamental protections. Well, social mores change over time. Once you give up the fundamental protections, it is inevitable that the rights you currently enjoy will be stripped at some point in time due to changing social perception.
Thus "it doesnt affect me cause I dont do X" where X is making a million dollars a year, owning a gun, caring about the privacy of a conversation, whatever - is never, and will never be a valid justification - though the majority of our society seems to think it is.
Prepare for a couple centuries of darkness, until people start escaping to new frontiers in outer space is basically what it boils down to. Europe was a statist shithole until people escaped to the New World which led the way for developing prosperity and liberty. Now we get to become old Europe, and the world will be a shithole until people manage to escape to space colonies. Rinse and repeat, unfortunately its a cycle that we as a race are likely not capable of breaking.
I will try not to get on a soap box about this but there appeared to be excessive violations of people's 4th amendment during the Boston lockdown. I understand it was a special circumstance but does that mean people instantly lose their rights?
I had no problem with them suggesting people stay indoors or doing the whole 20 block lock down thing. I dont feel someone's rights are violated by being asked to stay indoors while a armed person is on the loose in their neighborhood. That just seems like good sense.
But when they bring out military forces/vehicles *with a velcro police patch on their back* and start doing door to door searches without people's consent.....you have to step back and think about what is going on there. These were not friendly knock on the door and ask if we can look around type searches from what I saw.
So some scumbag did some horrible things down the road from where you live. Does that mean police are allowed to storm into your home and search it room by room without a warrant even if someone *refuses* to allow them in?
Those officers cannot go into a home with your bong on the table and turn a blind eye to it. They are obligated to act on plain sight offenses like that. So now you have minor convictions as the result of a warrantless search. It will get thrown out of court but none the less a person's rights have been violated.
So that is some food for thought. I am not up in arms about it or losing any sleep but I think it shows just how far government agencies will go when they feel the need to do so.
In a nutshell we have to be careful as a country about stepping on someone's rights just because of a special circumstance.
Today they had to evacuate my pants, because they found suspicious large package in there.