Re: Violation or Protection? [OLYMPICS]

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 6:03 PM 7/31/96, David Rosoff wrote:

>I don't have any crypto references, but due to the Libertarian overtones
>on this list I believe it is on-topic enough.

I think this topic (thanks for raising it) is actually on-topic, as the
proposals for "voluntary" escrow are somewhat similar. It all comes back to
search warrants, due process, prior restraint, and other constitutional
issues.

>On the local news I saw footage of a couple schmoozing in the Olympic
>(Centennial?) Park after its reopening. The voice-over said that all
>bags are being searched, and the couple said that rather than be
>alarmed or nervous, they "appreciated" it.
>
>I'm not quite sure what to think about this. I don't have enough
>experience to form a well thought-out opinion. I'd like to hear some
>of everyone's thoughts on this: Is this bag-searching a violation,
>(which was my immediate reaction) or is it not, because you have to
>already be going into the controlled area to get searched?

I have mixed thoughts as well.

On the one hand, were I to be hanging out in this park, given the recent
event and the focus on this park for crazies to attack, I would feel better
if bags were at least briefly looked into and "suspicious" bags left
unattended covered with explosive-containing shields.

On the other hand, a public place is a public place, and searches without
warrants are explicity forbidden by the Constitution. (Some dispute exists
about this, such as searches of bags on buses...I think the Supremes ruled
that cops can search bags on buses without warrants...a bad precedent, I
think.)

If the Centennial Park is a public place, not a private one, as I believe
to be the case, then it seems to me a person is within his rights to turn
down the offer to be inspected, frisked, interrogated, etc.

(There may be enabling emergency powers covering specific sites. I believe
such conditions apply when, for example, the President or other such royal
figures are mixing with the proles.)

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
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