Warrentlesss SEarches (fwd)

[Llywelyn <samman@CS.YALE.EDU>]

Sorry about resubmitting it y'all but I discovered the line feeds were
wierd so I just re-formatted it.

Ben.


> 	Think about it. The cops are out-gunned and out-manned. What would you 
> do? And don't tell me that you would just go in there. I consider myself pretty 
> brave, but I don't think even for a second that I would be able to even 
> consider going in there, not without a nice, warm, cozy M1 Abrams Tank 
> surrounding me. And even then I wouldn't be truly safe.
> 	These cops are doing the best that they can, and everyone in the U.S. 
> are worrying more about the "rights" of these gang-bangers and drug-dealers 
> than they are about the rights of the innocent people that are trapped in these 
> buildings.
> 	And don't even start to tell me that the "innocents" can just leave, 
> cos these CHA buildings are the only place they can afford to live.
> 	You folks are to busy yelling about the illegal searches to even think 
> of coming up with an alternative.
> 	
> 	Maybe if you spent a little time thinking about what it's like to live 
> in a place like this, you might shut up about the cops not doing their jobs.

Ok, Let me respond

1)I live in this kind of neighborhood at home when I'm not at school. 
That's right, I live in West Oakland, California.  I was born and raised
in the inner city.  Don't tell me how these places are, don't tell me how
they're run, don't tell me how dangerous they are.  I've lived it.  Have
you?  All you know is what you see on the news, on the television shows,
and what is portrayed in mass media. 

2)I know the value of a gun in this environment.  I know how many times
our home has been kept safe because my father has been willing to wield a
gun against either intruders or against 'undersireable' characters coming
around(read drug dealers, crack heads, you name it).  Our part of the
block has a reputation for not being somewhere for these pepole to hang
out because my father and our neighbors have taken a stand against such
scum. 

3)Not everyone who lives in these neighborhoods is bad simply as a result
of their economic conditions.  We don't want these people around any more
than you people do in your neighborhoods.  It just happens, and I know
this for a fact, that it takes Oakland Police(OPD) a lot longer to
respond when we call them, than when people in Skyline(a rich white
neighborhood) call them. 

4)My family has not broken any law simply by trying to protect ourselves. 
There is no way in hell that the police can be everywhere at once, even
if they are as efficient as you in the 'burbs seem to think they are,
keeping out and harassing all the minorties that come your way.  Until
they get there, the only way we can protect ourselves is with our guns. 
We havne't broken any laws, we're not the ones who have severed our
contract with society by choosing to live outside of it, its not us, its
the people who prey upon us in our homes and in our schools, and it is
not us who should lose our rights, but them.  By simply lumping us in
with them by sheer virtue of where we live and how much we earn is not
only sheer folly but is also classist. 

5)Yes we worry about the rights of the accused.  I do.  I've been
arrested and harassed when the only crime that I committed was being in
the wrong place at the wrong time, and not having the right skin color. 
Yes, I worry about those rights, because for me, it might be that one
day, that it is I who is on trial, it is I whose rights are being
questioned, and it is I who wants my day in court, and unless we protect
the rights of the accused, even if they don't look like us, it reaps a
beneficial result to society as a whole.  Thomas More in the movie _Man
for All Seasons_ makes an excellent point when he asks young Will, if he
would cut down all the laws in England to catch the devil.  When Will
responds in the affirmative, More asks him, "And what would you do when
the winds rage about you?"

You see, if you don't protect the rights of the accused today, there
might come a day when you're in their shoes and you'll wish that you
still had those rights--remember the 5th amendment?  The 4th's
prohibitions against unreasonable seach and siezures?  What about the
14th's due process clause?  It is the rule of law, not of decree that
makes this nation great, and there's no way in hell, I'm going to sit
idly by and watch this nation become an autocracy simply because some
people in suburbia decided that it would be easier to do away with the
rights of the accused in their racist, xenophobic fears. 

Any comments?
Ben.